Stephen Strasburg continues to dominate Marlins in Nationals’ 5-2 win in finale with Miami...

Stephen Strasburg had a three-start winning streak snapped last time out on the mound, in a 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which took place on May 20th in Washington, D.C., giving him a total of six days’ rest to prepare for Sunday afternoon’s outing against Miami in Marlins Park, where he was (5-5) with a 4.26 ERA, 19 walks, 57 Ks, and a .259/.322/.361 line against in 57 career innings pitched before today’s series finale, though he’d dominated the Fish in recent years.

Strasburg gave up five hits, two home runs, a season-high four walks, and three earned runs in 6 ²⁄₃ IP against LA in his previous start, throwing a season-high 115 pitches in the nation’s capital.

In 10 starts and 67 IP this season, the 29-year-old right-hander had given up ten home runs, after giving up 13 total in 175 ¹⁄₃ IP last season, just two in 62 ²⁄₃ IP in the second half of the 2017 campaign.

“I think it’s just mistake pitches,” Davey Martinez said when asked about all the balls leaving the yard off Strasburg this season. “When you make a mistake to good hitters, you’re going to get hurt.”

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Strasburg didn’t make any (or many) mistakes through four scoreless in the series finale in Miami, as he kept the Marlins off the board and helped his own cause with an RBI single to make it 2-0 in the top of the fifth after Anthony Rendon homered in the fourth to start the scoring.

His 25-pitch fifth left Strasburg at 103 total on the day after five scoreless, and that was it for the starter in what ended up a 5-2 win in the finale with the Fish.

Stephen Strasburg’s Line: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 Ks, 103 P, 68 S, 1/3 GO/FO.

“They fouled off a lot of really good pitches,” Davey Martinez told reporters after their three-game sweep of the Marlins was complete.

“He got 103 pitches in five innings,” the first-year skipper explained, “and I thought that was plenty. Last couple outings we asked him to go [109]-[106]-115, so he did well, he kept us in the game and bullpen did outstanding.”

Two runners reached in Strasburg’s final inning of work, and the pitch count was climbing, and Martinez let him finish the frame, but didn’t send him back out for the sixth.

“He gave it his all,” Martinez said.

“Five innings he’s got 103 pitches, I thought that was good enough, we had the lead, I felt confident with the guys we had in our bullpen and we just kind of let it ride at that point.”

Nationals sweep three-game set from the Marlins in Miami with 5-2 win:

Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images

LINK: Nationals win 3-straight in Miami; 11th straight over the Marlins

“I feel like I was able to execute pitches when I needed to,” Strasburg said when asked about his outing.

“There were definitely some times where I guess it looked like it was an executed pitch, but I think it was, at the same time — I don’t feel like I was executing it well enough. I think there were a lot of times and situations where you want to throw a put-away pitch, and it’s left in the zone and they’re fouling it off.

“I think that’s where [Pedro Severino] calling a great game with the selection aspect, that they weren’t really on the pitch, but I think from my end I need to do a little better job of getting the ball down and out of the zone in those situations, so I just got away with some today.When Strasburg was done for the day, he was (6-4) on the season, with a 3.13 ERA, a 3.56 FIP, 19 walks (2.38 BB/9), and 83 Ks (10.38 K/9) in 72 IP in 2018, and (7-0) with a 1.13 ERA against the Marlins since September of 2015, with a streak of 23 scoreless innings going against Miami.