Winner’s Circle; Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
It has been a while since we have seen the Washington Nationals winner’s circle! The 5-game losing streak is over! Unfortunately, Stephen Strasburg left the game with tightness in this right trapezius muscle which is between the neck and shoulder. Austin Voth carried the Nats lead into the 5th inning, and Wander Suero, Daniel Hudson, and Brad Hand had to pick up a lot of pitches in this one.
The team is in a tough bind with Jon Lester pitching on short rest tomorrow, and the Nats bullpen had to cover 7 2/3 innings in this one.
Some other great news was Juan Soto had his biggest game of the season with a 3-4 night with 4 RBIs that came from a 2-run home run to the opposite field and a 2-run single. Both Kyle Schwarber and Yan Gomes had 2 RBIs a piece. Ryan Zimmerman also had a big night with a 2-run homer, and all of that was part of the Nats’ fourteen hit barrage.
It was good to see Trea Turner get off of his mini-slump with a 3-hit night. In fact, the Nats had the lead-off batter on base in 5 of the 9 innings in this game. In all, the Nats scored 11-runs in this game and chased the Braves starter, Max Fried, in the 4th inning.
Of course this much-needed win was tempered by Strasburg’s latest injury that has now limited to just 21 2/3 innings this season and 26 2/3 innings since the 2019 season. Voth has pitched more than that this season in relief.
“He waved us off, but I told him, ‘We gotta be smart, Stephen. We gotta see what’s going on and hopefully you come back soon,’” Martinez said. “I always say there’s still a lot of baseball. But we need him healthy.”
The team will send Strasburg for an MRI this morning and decide where to go from there. Stras is only in the second year of that new $245 million contract that has 5 more years to go.
