The offense came out of its coma and Stephen Strasburg held the St. Louis Cardinals down for seven good innings and the Washington Nationals won the first of a 10-game roadie, 5-4, before a sellout crowd of 45,246 of the "best fans in baseball" at Busch Stadium, a place that has not been kind to the Nats in recent years.
Strasburg (W, 4-0) had a tough go of it in the first inning, but settled down very nicely to strike out nine -- including seven consecutive outs recorded by Ks at one point. He gave up two runs, earned, both in that first inning, and allowed eight hits and one walk, lowering his season ERA to 2.