The Nationals on Sunday closed in on the NL East title by beating the Phillies 3-2 (box score). Central to that success was a dominant Stephen Strasburg ...
Would you like to see those 10 strikeouts in a tidy 10 seconds? Of course you would ...
Anyhow, with that effort Strasburg extended his scoreless innings streak to a franchise-record 34 frames. The record, of course, belongs to Orel Hershiser who worked 59 straight spotless innings back in 1988. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but if the Nats keep Strasburg on schedule -- not to be assumed, given their secure playoff status and designs on the World Series -- then he should get four more regular season starts. That's enough to make a run at Hershiser's record.
Either way, it's been a heck of year for the 29-year-old right-hander. In 156 2/3 innings, Strasburg's put up an ERA of 2.64 while striking out 29.1 percent of opposing batters -- a highly impressive figure for a starter. In 17 of his 25 starts, he's allowed two runs or fewer.
So Strasburg is looking healthy as the Nats barrel toward the postseason, and he's also looking like a worthy No. 2 behind Cy Young front-runner Max Scherzer. Throw in Gio Gonzalez's excellent work in 2017, and Washington has a formidable front three. Despite the Nats' recent run of success, Strasburg has only one career playoff start. No doubt, Washington is hoping he, oh, quintuples that figure before 2017 is done.
