The Washington Nationals will turn to right-hander Stephen Strasburg on Thursday as they look to prevent the visiting St. Louis Cardinals from completing a four-game sweep.
Right-hander Dakota Hudson (2-1, 5.63 ERA) will look to extend St. Louis’ five-game winning streak.
Strasburg (2-1, 3.82 ERA) hasn’t faced the Cardinals since 2016, when he went 2-0 against them. His last loss to St. Louis came in 2014, and he is 2-2 with a 2.56 ERA in six career starts vs. the Cardinals.
The former San Diego State star has thrown the most innings in franchise history since the move to the Nationals, 1,267 1/3, but he is still seeking improvement.
“You always got to work on making adjustments,” Strasburg told Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN). “There could be a longer span of not doing the same thing, but really it just comes down to execution of all your pitches, being able to do different things with it and expanding the zone with it when you need to, and throwing it to both sides of the plate.
“That’s pitching. That’s kind of the art of it, making the ball do what your mind wants it to do.”
Strasburg will try to slow down a red-hot Cardinals team that rolled to a 5-1 win on Wednesday and owns the best record in the majors at 20-10.
“We can compete and score in a number of different ways,” said Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, standing in his office after the latest victory. “We can do it with the bat, that is a big part of it. We do it on the bases as well. They are just sincere and talented players.”
Cardinals left fielder Marcell Ozuna, who had three hits Wednesday, is 13-for-38 (.342) with two homers in his career against Strasburg. Jedd Gyorko is 6-for-14 (.429) with a homer vs. the right-hander.
Strasburg needs eight strikeouts to reach the 1,500 mark for his career. Teammate Max Scherzer, who fell to 1-4 on Wednesday, notched his 2,500th career strikeout last week.
Hudson enters Thursday looking to win a third consecutive start. He earned a spot in the rotation this year, beating out John Gant — who has been a revelation in the bullpen.
“We have a really smart group that knows how to play and sees the game really well and sees the field really well. There’s a lot of different ways we can compete,” Shildt said.
In his latest outing, Hudson went a career-high 5 2/3 innings and surrendered three runs on seven hits Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds. He did not allow a homer in that game after giving up five long balls in the previous two outings combined. Hudson has four career appearances against the Nationals as a reliever (1-0, 7.71 ERA).
The only Nationals player with more than one at-bat against Hudson is infielder Wilmer Difo, who is 1-for-2.
The Cardinals could start Matt Wieters at catcher Thursday after Yadier Molina caught the first three games of the series. Wieters played for the Nationals in 2017-18 after opening his career by playing eight seasons for the Baltimore Orioles.
Wieters is 4-for-11 (.364) with five RBIs in limited action this year.