ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Here’s a story that hasn’t been written yet: Stephen Strasburg saves the season for the Washington Nationals.
On Saturday night at Nationals Park, Strasburg wrote the opening chapter of that story.
He announced his presence in the starting rotation with authority against the Colorado Rockies, allowing one run over seven innings, with no walks and 12 strikeouts, on his way to a 6-1 win in his return from injury.
It was a hopeful start for a team that needs some hope right now, and the hope may be that finally the two bookends of hyped talent for the Washington Nationals — Strasburg and Bryce Harper — may carry this team.
“He’s one of the best in baseball when he’s out there doing his thing,” Harper told reporters. “Painting 98 [mph] on the black, reaching 99 sometimes … great curveball, good changeup … he’s got four ’plus’ pitches. He’s very good out there, and when he’s in control, he’s unhittable.”
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Think about it. For the most part, in the Nationals’ two previous National League East title seasons, neither Strasburg nor Harper were the driving forces for the team. They were contributors — important contributors — but they were passengers.
What we may be seeing is a season where Harper, finally realizing his promise, carries the offense for much of the year — as he has to date — and is joined by Strasburg, the enigmatic superstar hurler who has never quite reached the heights we all expected with that dramatic 14-strikeout debut in 2010.
“That’s the best I’ve seen him look in a long time, so hopefully, this kind of bad luck he’s been having where he’s had these little things is — it stinks to see that happen to someone who works as hard as he does — but hopefully, he can get rid of those things and be that guy for the next two and a half months,” Ryan Zimmerman told reporters. “That was special.”
Strasburg can be that guy — at least until the end of the regular season. He was in 2014, but nobody noticed.
Everyone sees the body language, the occasional early-inning struggles, so much so that they have come to define him.
Strasburg is soft. You can’t count on him. He came to represent the Nationals’ postseason failures as the superstar pitcher who was shut down near the end of the 2012 season as part of the team’s Tommy John surgery recovery plan, then had to withstand the national criticism for the move. Yet, he never gave up the team in his answers to the press about the shutdown.
What he may be is so tough, you don’t even notice it.
In nine starts in 2014, from Aug. 14 until the end of the regular-season, Strasburg went 6-1 with two no-decisions — and Washington wound up winning the two no-decisions he started. Over 58 2/3 innings, Strasburg gave up just 12 runs. In his last three starts, he surrendered zero runs in 20 innings pitched.
Over that same period in 2014, the Nationals went 22-10. Of those 22 wins, eight of them were with Strasburg on the mound.
If that Strasburg shows up again this season, everybody will notice. He will be the savior.
“I just have personal expectations for myself every time, and I can’t really worry about when the last time I pitched in this setting was,” Strasburg told reporters after the game on Saturday. “I just want to go out there and compete and leave it all out there on the field. … It has definitely been an up-and-down year, and it’s been a huge learning experience, so I’m excited to have another opportunity and go out tomorrow and get ready for the next one.”
Again, everyone is so caught up in the narrative of Strasburg the disappointment, they have failed to notice the performances like the stretch run that carried this team last season. Also forgotten are the three starts before he went on the disabled list five weeks ago with a strained left oblique, when he went 2-0 and allowed just two runs in 15 2/3 innings.
Nationals manager Matt Williams — under fire for his handling of this team’s pitching, particular the bullpen — welcomed anyone who can go out there and throw seven innings of one-run ball to make his life easier.
“He’s just another great starter for us,” Williams told reporters. “He can do what he did tonight. That’s a pretty good-hitting team over there and he kept them in check, so that just gives us another weapon in the arsenal to go win a game. So, I know he’s pleased with it. We’re all pleased with it and look forward to the next one.”
The next one, if it is the Strasburg of 2014, should be pretty good — and the one after that, and the one after that. The postseason? That’s a different story, but right now, Washington is hoping that what has turned out to be a rocky road to the NL East can be smoothed out by the superstar pitcher who was supposed to join with the superstar slugger to pave the road to championships for years to come.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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