Stras’ gem has Cubbies worried sick
CHICAGO — The Washington Nationals can feature this event on their 2018 promotional calendar: the Stephen Strasburg bobblehead doll, featuring a springy caricature of the pitcher popping up from a sick bed.
In Nationals lore, this game will simply be known as the Strasburg game. The pitcher that the Nationals had said was too ill to pitch effectively saved his team’s season. The pitcher belittled across the country for his alleged reluctance to pitch while ill saved his reputation. Sick? We should all be so sick. With the Nationals facing elimination, Strasburg sneezed and coughed, put up his germy hand in the faces of the Chicago Cubs, and just said no.
He pitched seven of the most dominant innings you will ever see, soaring above the elements of mist and cold and rain, letting the Nationals ride him to a 5-0 victory on Wednesday. The Nationals managed an unearned run and nothing more until Michael Taylor hit a grand slam with two out in the eighth inning.
And so the series will extend to a fifth and decisive game, Thursday in Washington. The exhausted winning team then will fly from coast to coast, opening the National League championship series Saturday at Dodger Stadium, against Clayton Kershaw and the rest of the rested Dodgers.
Strasburg struck out 12, flashing a fastball that hit 96 mph and an unhittable changeup. He gave up three hits. In 14 innings in this National League division series, he has not given up a run, and he has struck out 22.
He set the franchise record for strikeouts in a postseason game in Game 1, then broke it in Game 4. He joined Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers with 10 or more strikeouts twice in a postseason series.
Strasburg took the mound in short sleeves, an almost defiant gesture when the temperature at game time was 59 degrees and the wind whipped at 15 mph. He had taken antibiotics and intravenous fluids for several days.
The Nationals had announced Tuesday he would not pitch, without disclosing his condition. Washington manager Dusty Baker said only that Strasburg was “under the weather” and that there was “mold in Chicago,” prompting some fans to wear face masks to Wrigley Field on Wednesday to protect themselves from the purported civic mold menace.
Strasburg did pitch, of course, after Strasburg had taken what the Nationals said was a new drug, and after he had endured national questions about his fortitude. His first pitch was a fastball at 95 mph, so he had his velocity. His curveball was darting, his change was remarkable.
He struck out two batters in the first inning, three in the third, three more in the fourth, three in his seventh and final inning, when he skipped off the mound after 106 pitches.
Cubs starter Jake Arrieta, limited to 10 innings over the final month of the season because of a hamstring strain, did not look anywhere near the part of the $200-million pitcher he hopes to play in free agency this winter.
Arrieta needed 90 pitches to complete four innings, his stuff effective but his control erratic. He walked five of the 20 batters he faced, and his wild pitch put the Nationals in position to score.
Trea Turner started the Washington third with a double, the first hit of the series for the Nationals’ leadoff batter.
Arrieta bounced a wild pitch, enabling Turner to take third base, and he scored from there when shortstop Addison Russell misplayed a ground ball by Ryan Zimmerman.
Jon Lester, the Cubs’ $155-million ace, followed Arrieta to the mound for the Cubs and delivered 32⁄3 shutout innings.