Nationals keep it going
Michael Taylor slams Cubs, forces deciding Game 5
The Washington Nationals, showing their crosstown neighbors at the White House that they can deliver plenty of their own drama, not only watched Stephen Strasburg save their season, but also forever alter his reputation.
You think he’s soft?
You think he’s scared of the pressure?
You think the Nationals always choke in the postseason, as Todd Ricketts, one of the Chicago Cubs owners, uttered at the White House this summer?
Well, look again, as Strasburg put on one of the finest pitching
performances in the franchise’s brief postseason history, leading the Nationals to a 5-0 victory and ensuring a Game 5 winnertake-all game at 8 p.m. ET Thursday at Nationals Park.
The Cubs will start Game 1 winner Kyle Hendricks, while the Nationals, manager Dusty Baker said, will go with Game 2 starter Gio Gonzalez or Tanner Roark. “Whoever it is, I hope they pitch like Stras today,” Baker said.
It was Roark who was to start Game 4, before the rains came and 20 hours of will-he, won’the drama engulfed Strasburg.
Perhaps he should try that approach more often.
Strasburg was nothing short of magnificent, pitching seven scoreless innings, striking out a franchise postseason-record 12 batters, and answered every critic who ever had a keyboard or microphone.
Strasburg, saying he felt too sick to start Game 4, only to change his mind 12 hours later, simply came through with the most magnificent performance of his life.
Looks who’s the ultimate gamer now, with one Nationals official even apologizing for his opinion of Strasburg while watching his dazzling outing.
Funny what antibiotics, and a few IVs, can do for a man’s health, and his own image — not that Strasburg professed any concern for the latter.
“Not to you guys, no,” Strasburg told reporters after the game when asked if he thought Game 4 was a proving moment.
“You guys create the drama, but like I said earlier, I have faith in every other guy in this clubhouse, and the coaching staff feels the same.”
Strasburg might have had flulike symptoms, coughing and wheezing and saying he “got hit pretty hard with this virus since we got here,” but he looked a whole lot like the guy who has dominated the National League since the All-Star break.
Strasburg, for the second time in four games, throttled the Cubs offense. He gave up six hits and two unearned runs in this series, striking out 22 in 14 innings, imposing his will on this division series like aces are expected.
Strasburg ’s fastball might have been a tick off, sitting at 96 mph instead of 98 mph, but no matter. He still had the Cubs baffled all afternoon with his curveball and nasty changeup. The Cubs swung
23 times at his changeup, missing
15 times.
Yes, pretty, pretty, pretty good. The only real question was whether the Nats would score for him.
They were clinging to a 1-0 lead on Cubs shortstop Addison Russell’s error when the unthinkable happened in the eighth inning. The Nationals loaded the bases, and the Cubs brought in All-Star closer Wade Davis. Davis inherited a 1-0 count from reliever C.J. Edwards and two pitches later watched Michael Taylor hit a grand slam that just landed in the right-field basket outside the reach of Ian Happ.
Just like that, we have ourselves a series, headed back for a dramatic conclusion in the nation’s capital.
The Nationals, you might be aware, have never won a postseason series in franchise history. And, yes, the Cubs are the defending World Series champions.
Still, after watching the Nationals perform these first four games, it’s clear that little rattles them.
Oh, the sellout crowd at Wrigley Field tried their best to unnerve Strasburg, chanting, “Stras-Burg!” “Stras-burg!” “Stras-burg!” Finally, they gave up, realizing nothing was going to rattle him this day.
It began with a morning phone call to pitching coach Mike Maddux. It ended with a return flight home, with the season intact.
“He came in and said I want the ball. We gave him the ball,” Maddux said. “That simple. He was the eye of the tiger out there. It was a big game for the Washington Nationals.
”It might have been a bigger game for Stephen Strasburg.”