Washington Nationals vs New York Mets: Grapefruit League GameThread...

Stephen Strasburg gave up five hits, four walks, and two earned runs last time out on the mound, striking out six of 22 Houston batters he faced in his third start of the Spring.

In those outings, the now-30-year-old has given up just those two runs over 10 ²⁄₃ innings pitched, over which he’s walked five total, struck out 13, and held hitters to a .179 AVG.

“Arm felt really good,” he said after the start vs the Astros. “Command was, I think, better than I thought it was. Obviously the results, walks kind of killed me there, especially in the pitch count, but they were just laying off on some good pitches, working the count. I think two-seamer was working pretty well, changeup came along later on in the game better, curveball was good, just still trying to mix in the slider and get a good feel for that.”

This afternoon, the righty faces the New York Mets for the second time in Grapefruit League action after tossing four scoreless against the Washington’s NL East rivals when he faced off against them in Port St. Lucie, FL earlier this month.

He struck out five of the 15 batters he faced in that outing, walking one and giving up just a hit.

“There’s always room for improvement,” Strasburg said after that outing against the Mets.

“There’s definitely sequences that we were working on today and going to continue to work on them, and the execution is going to be a continual work in progress.”

Strasburg makes his fourth start of the Spring this afternoon when the Nationals take on the Mets again, this time at home in West Palm Beach, FL, in a 1:05 PM EDT matchup that’s only available on the radio via 106.7 the FAN in D.C. and the MLB At Bat app...

Here’s the Nationals’ lineup for this afternoon’s game: