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Stephen Strasburg got the game winning RBI and a home run and powered his team on a complete game shutout. It was four years ago this month that Strasburg had his only other shutout on a 4-hit gem that day. This one was a 6-hitter and the best part of it was Realmuto took advantage of the Nats on a grounder into the leftfield corner and he deked Howie Kendrick coming around 2nd base and Realmuto kept going for a leadoff triple. Strasburg then struck out the next two batters and finished that inning on a harmless groundball to keep his shutout alive and well.

It was a 0-0 game going into the bottom of the 5th inning when Strasburg hit a 409 foot bomb over the right-centerfield wall for the first run of the game. Two batters later Wilmer Difo would add a home run of his own. Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon would combine for a run on a Rendon double for the third run of the game. The last run scored on a wild pitch to make the final score 4-0.

Dusty Baker had to get Brandon Kintzler warming in the final inning as the lead-off batter singled off of Strasburg, but Stephen dropped the hammer and even threw some sliders to carve through the final 3 batters. Strasburg finished his outing on 110 pitches and got his ERA under 3.00 to finish at 2.90 which is 6th in the Majors for qualified pitchers and now Strasburg has thrown his hat in the Cy Young discussion with this performance. Continue reading →