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Washington Nationals' Davey Johnson Pushes Right Buttons With Stephen Strasburg And Gio Gonzalez.

By Patrick Reddington
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• In back-to-back games this weekend, Washington Nationals' skipper Davey Johnson knew just what to do with his starters Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez:

"With his runners on there in a game he was pitching," Davey Johnson continued, "there was no way I was going to hook him." Johnson left Stephen Strasburg in and the right-hander pitched out of trouble. "I knew it was a little high pitch count and it was a little farther than I'd normally want to take him, but he's fine." As Johnson hinted and Nats' bench coach Randy Knorr told reporters (including the Washington Times' Amanda Comak) explicitly on Sunday, there was no way anyone was taking Strasburg out because, quite simply, "'He might have killed all of us.'"

It wasn't the first time the Nationals have openly discussed their 23-year-old right-hander's surly demeanor. Before Strasburg's Opening Day start in Chicago, the Nats' 69-year-old manager was asked if he'd spoken to his pitcher to make sure he didn't get too amped up for his first start of the year in front of a packed house in Wrigley Field?

Johnson admitted that neither he nor pitching coach Steve McCatty really liked going near Strasburg when the pitcher was preparing to take the mound, but the skipper and his coaches were fine with that...

• LINK: Read the entire article over at DC.SBNation.com.

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