Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg headed to DL, MRI shows no structural damage in shoulder...

Neither Washington Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez or right-hander Stephen Strasburg wanted to speculate about the extent of the issue with his right shoulder which forced him from the mound after two innings on Friday night when they spoke to reporters afterwards.

“Shoulder tightened up on him,” Martinez said. “He’s got a little bit of inflammation, but he’s getting an MRI tomorrow, so we’ll know a lot more tomorrow.”

“I’m trying not to forecast anything,” Strasburg told reporters. “I think I’m just going to get an MRI tomorrow and take it from there.”

Asked about the line between pitching sore and actually being hurt, and whether this was an instance where he pushed it too far, Strasburg, who did say it had been bothering him for a few outings, said it’s is a tough thing to differentiate.

“I don’t expect to feel 100% every time,” he explained, “... and whatever percent I’m at I’m going to go out there and give it everything I have, and just unfortunately today it seemed to increase and it is what it is. So I’m just going to see what they have to say tomorrow.”

Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Asked for an update this morning before the second of three with the San Francisco Giants in D.C., Martinez said they were still waiting for the results of the MRI.

This afternoon, the Nationals’ skipper said the test showed no structural damage, but the 29-year-old right-hander will be going on the DL.

“He’s got right shoulder inflammation,” Martinez said.

“He’s going to go on the DL, but we don’t know what we’re going to do yet, and there’s no timetable.”

Was the fact that it’s just inflammation relatively good news?

“Honestly,” Martinez acknowledged, “I thought just the inflammation was a good thing and nothing else was wrong, structural, so as soon as we can get that to calm down a little bit and get him throwing again, he’ll be fine.”

Martinez said there was no timetable, but a reporter asked again.

“Right now it’s just let him rest,” Martinez added, “until we can get that inflammation out of there, just we’re going to let him rest.”

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While that was relatively good news, the Nats suffered another blow when reliever Brandon Kintzler left the mound late in today’s game after hitting a batter and giving up a double to put runners on second and third in what was then a two-run game.

Kintzler motioned for the trainer to come out after the double by Buster Posey, and he left the mound fairly quickly.

Martinez said it was a forearm issue, and Kintlzer too is headed for an MRI to check it out.

“He’s got a tight forearm,” Martinez explained. “So he’s going to get it evaluated by a doctor and get an MRI tomorrow.”

Had it been an issue before?

“No,” Martinez said. “He just told me. First time I’ve heard it was today.”