Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
Washington Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg said worrying over his recently healed shoulder helped lead to the worst outing of his brief major league career.
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Having seemingly put that anxiety behind him during a bullpen session a couple days ago, Strasburg will try to bounce back Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Strasburg (5-3, 3.07 ERA) told the Nationals' official website that he was fixated too much on his mechanics during an 8-2 home loss to Florida on Tuesday night. The rookie right-hander gave up a career-high six runs over 4 1/3 innings, his shortest outing in 10 starts.Watch Arizona Diamondbacks vs Washington Nationals MLB Live Stream | Major League Broadcast, 15/8
"This is the first time in the relatively short career that I've had where ... not one pitch felt like I controlled it," Strasburg said.
During that ensuing bullpen session, Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty told his young pitcher to worry more about the batters he's facing. Strasburg is restricted to no more than 160 innings this year, and he's logged 114 over 21 games with the Nationals and their minor league affiliates.
"We can't think about our mechanics (while we're on the mound)," McCatty said. "You have to trust yourself to make competitive pitches at the time. If we worry about where we are and everything being perfect and all that -- like mechanics -- it takes away what we are trying to do with the hitter."
While Strasburg was laboring Tuesday, Diamondbacks rookie Barry Enright was putting forth another strong effort in a 2-1 win at Milwaukee. Enright (3-2, 2.64) will oppose Strasburg after giving up one run and three hits over six innings, though he did not get a decision.
"He did his job, six innings, totally controlled the game," manager Kirk Gibson said of Enright, 1-0 with a 2.12 ERA in three road starts. "I don't know if you guys notice how good he is controlling the run game, too. It was obvious he was getting tired, but he found a way to get through it."
It was the seventh time in eight starts that the right-hander has allowed two runs or fewer, including his last six. One of those outings was a win over Washington (50-67) on Aug. 5, giving up only solo homers to Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Kennedy over six innings in an 8-4 victory.
In this matchup, he'll try to lead the Diamondbacks (47-71) to their fourth series victory in five tries.
Arizona was held to four hits in a series-opening 4-2 loss but bounced back with 14 hits Saturday in a 9-2 win. Miguel Montero hit two of the Diamondbacks' four homers, and he's batting .340 with six home runs and 14 RBIs in his last 14 games.
The Nationals, losers in six of seven, haven't dropped a series to Arizona since the first one between the clubs at Nationals Park from July 8-10, 2008. The teams have split their six games in 2010.
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