Stephen Strasburg was up to 2 1⁄3 scoreless on 45 pitches when his left calf bit, causing him to stumble as he delivered what would end up being the final pitch of his second start so far this spring.
Strasburg, 32, is, of course, coming off a 2020 campaign in which he made just two starts, throwing five innings before an issue with carpal tunnel neuritis ended things for the 2019 World Series MVP, who needed surgery.
Manager Davey Martinez said they would take things slowly as they worked Strasburg back into the rotation following the calf scare, but neither the skipper or starter seemed to think that it would be a long-term problem.
“Hopefully it’s nothing major, we’ll get him back soon. My concern is just keeping him on a five-day schedule right now,” Martinez said a few days after the outing.
“I didn’t really feel it at all, except for like the last pitch,” Strasburg said of the calf issue he experienced.
“I just kind of like felt it simultaneously — as I was finishing the pitch, and then it was just kind of like precautionary reasons at this point in camp, just go in and make sure it’s not going to alter mechanics or affect me long-term.”
Martinez and Co. on the Nationals’ staff decided to throw Strasburg in a simulated game this week so they could control the environment as he tested things out this past Friday.
“He looked good,” the manager said after the sim start. “He threw five innings, 74 pitches. He looked good. He had nothing that indicated his calf was bothering him. He felt strong. He kind of tired at the end there a little bit, but he got through it.”
They let Strasburg go back out for a fifth up/down or “inning” Martinez explained, because he felt good on the mound, and experienced no recurrence of the calf issue.
“He was feeling good, he wanted to go back out, so that was encouraging. So like I said, we got him through five innings, we’ll see how he feels tomorrow and then go from there.”
Asked on Saturday afternoon when the right-hander would make his next start, Martinez said that the club hadn’t decided yet.
“I’m going to sit down with him and talk to him,” he told reporters.
“Actually I heard through the grapevine, he felt good, legs felt good, I thought maybe he’d feel a little heavy, but he felt good, so I’m going to sit down with him and [pitching coach] [Jim] Hickey and map out his next 2-3 starts. I want to talk to him first before we decide on anything.”
On Sunday, Martinez said they would get Strasburg back in a game soon.
“We got to get Stras ready. I know he threw 74 pitches his last outing, five innings. He felt good today. We’ll get him back in a real game here very soon.”
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March 22, 2021 at 11:15AM
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Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg passed first test in return from calf issue... - Federal Baseball
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