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The Morning Briefing: Ugly outing for Stephen Strasburg and an Ugly Loss for the Nationals

April 14, 2021 • Reading Time: 7 minutes

Good Wednesday Morning, Washington Nationals Fans.

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Today's Top Story:  An ugly outing for Stephen Strasburg and an ugly loss for the Nationals

For the second time, the Nationals had their regular lineup, and this time it was behind one of the Nationals Ace's Stephen Strasburg, so optimism was high. Sometimes expectations don't meet reality, and that is what happened last night in St. Louis when the Nationals faced off against the Cardinals.

Stephen Strasburg struggled last night on the mound in his second start of the 2021 season. Strasburg gave up eight hits, five walks and earned seven runs over four innings. During his brief outing, Strasburg ended up pitching a total of 88, and just 50 pitches were strikes. Many noticed that Strasburg was off from the very first Pitch; he was falling towards the first base side during his delivery, his velocity was down all game.

An interesting moment came during the fourth inning on the Cardinal's broadcast when a camera caught Strasburg caught him down in a tunnel off the visitor's dugout, massaging his right shoulder/neck.[Twitter link] During his post-game Zoom press conference, Martinez noted the bad performance of Strasburg: "We watched him, his mechanics were a little off, but we talked to him, he didn't complain about anything, you know.. For us it's part of the process. He hasn't pitched in a year. We got to get him out there, we got to stretch him out, we've got to build him up. He was just a tad off today. His last outing was good. Today, he wasn't as sharp. So he'll have four or five days to work with Hickey and get him back on track."

Dave Martinez talked about the camera catching that moment also during his post-game press conference: "I’m a little perturbed about that, that camera is not supposed to be down in that tunnel.”Pitchers do all kinds of stuff down there... Honestly. There are rules and regulations about that. It’s not supposed to go down in the tunnel. It’s not. So, I mean, it’s in black and white."

There wasn't a lot of offense from the Nationals last night in the 3-14 loss to the Cardinals. The Nationals left six base runs on base, and Soto and Harrison were the only Nationals to record an RBI.

Some good news coming out of last night's game: Due to his second hit by Pitch of the season, Victor Robles in the leadoff position has now reached base in each of the Nationals' eight games to begin the season.

The Nationals are now 2-6 and will close out the series and this not-so-good road trip today with a 1:15 pm EDT first pitch time. Joe Ross will be pitching for the Nationals and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals. [More in our GameNotes later today.]

Missed the action last night? Watch the condensed game via MLB’s film room below:

#ICYMI: Dave Martinez Announces Washington Nationals Players get the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccination

When the Nationals first got to St. Louis, many players had the opportunity to get the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccination, according to Dave Martinez: "The guys that wanted to get vaccinated got vaccinated today so we’re elated about that as well,” Martinez said. “For the most part we all got vaccinated, so we’re going to move forward.” Martinez didn’t provide the players or staff’s names that got the Johnson and Johnson one-time shot.

Click here to read more via The Nats Report.

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