Strasburg Stymies Padres

San Diego native sets career strikeout high in win

In Friday night’s 5-1 loss to the Nationals, the Padres offense struck out 14 times. That’s in no way a good thing … yet it preferable to the outing they had on Saturday in Washington, D.C.

San Diego native Stephen Strasburg was as dominant as he’s ever been in a 3-0 win over his home town team. Strasburg punched out a career-high 15 Padres in 7.0 innings, allowing just three singles to get the win. Strasburg, a West Hills High School alum, improved to 6-1 with a 2.94 ERA on the year.

Every single person who got an at-bat for the Padres struck out at least once. Ryan Schimpf and Austin Hedges both punched out three times. For the second straight night the guys with the bats in their hands couldn’t help out a starting pitcher who made a pretty good start.

Clayton Richard tossed a complete game in his last outing and followed it up with 6.0 innings against the Nationals. He allowed just three runs, one on an RBI groundout by Bryce Harper and the other two on a home run by Michael Taylor.

The Padres lead the National League in strikeouts and have the 2nd-worst on-base percentage in all of Major League Baseball. It’s awfully hard to win ballgames when you don’t have guys on base.

The Nationals go for a sweep on Sunday when former Padres farmhand Joe Ross gets the start against Jhoulys Chacin, who has been the ultimate Jekyll and Hyde pitcher in 2017. At Petco Park Chacin has an ERA of 0.67. On the road that skyrockets to 10.94. If you’re looking for a ray of hope for the Padres it’s that Chacin does have a career 0.45 ERA in three starts at Nationals Park.

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