Perhaps overlooked was the fact that the Cardinals had the third-leading winner in the league at their disposal Monday in Dakota Hudson. On May 2 in Washington, Hudson had lost a 2-1 bout with Strasburg and he pitched even better on Monday, holding the Nationals to two runs and five hits in seven innings.
Meantime, a determined Cardinals’ offense forced Strasburg to throw 38 pitches in the first, one of them resulting in a two-run homer by Marcell Ozuna. At 99 pitches and five innings, the Washington ace, who had had 21 starts of 100 or more pitches and who had thrown a league-high 3,183 pitches for the season, was out of the game.