Sean Doolittle on Stephen Strasburg: "It's so impressive to me that when the crowd is the loudest, and in the biggest moments, is when he looks the calmest. And you have to be able to stay calm if you're gonna execute your off-speed pitches in the zone the way he was all night long."
The Nationals are shaking hands after a dominant Game 3 victory and are now just one win away from clinching the franchise's first World Series trip.
The Nationals won Game 3, 8-1, and take a commanding 3-0 lead over the Cardinals in this NLCS, all but guaranteeing a trip to the World Series. Stephen Strasburg (1 unearned run, 0 walks, 12 strikeouts in 7 innings) was dominant. Nationals starters have a 1.59 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP this postseason.
Stephen Strasburg's postseason ERA of 1.10 trails only Sandy Koufax (0.95) among those with a minimum of five starts. He has accumulated 57 strikeouts and 5 walks in 41 innings.
If not for Michael Taylor misplaying a line drive hit directly at him and Juan Soto slipping while attempting to throw home, the Cardinals would have zero runs through 25 innings this series. Stephen Strasburg worked out of trouble with back-to-back strikeouts in the seventh. He has 12, with 0 walks, and 117 pitches. Another gem.
Stephen Strasburg has navigated through six scoreless innings on 90 pitches. He, Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez have combined for 0 runs, 6 hits, 3 walks and 25 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings this series. Wut.
Howie Kendrick has driven in 8 runs in the Nationals' last four playoff games. His second two-out double gave them a 5-0 lead in the fifth, which feels insurmountable the way the Cardinals are swinging it.
Stephen Strasburg, through 5: 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 7 strikeouts. The Cardinals have two extra-base hits and one run in 23 innings this season. Complete, utter dominance.
Four innings and four runs after the much-anticipated Jack Flaherty-Stephen Strasburg began, Flaherty is out of the game with his Cardinals in a 4-0 NLCS Game 3 hole.
Jack Flaherty was the hottest pitcher in baseball from mid-July until the bottom of the third inning of NLCS Game 3 when the Nationals erupted for four runs off the Cardinals ace.
Well, brutal inning and bad luck there for the Cards. Jack Flaherty threw 33 pitches, but gave up three hits with expected batting averages of .220, .240 and .180 and then Howie Kendrick toasted him with a two-run laser into right-center. The outlook isn't brilliant for the Cardinal nine, down 4-0 after three innings.
A packed Nationals Park with a loud "N-A-T-S Nats! Nats! Nats!" chant as the bottom of the third prolonged. They scored four runs off Jack Flaherty in that half-inning, the last two on a two-out, two-run, opposite-field double by Howie Kendrick, who hasn't stopped hitting all year.
Marcell Ozuna is a former Gold Glove winner, but he just dropped Anthony Rendon's soft fly ball down the left-field line -- generously scored a double -- and Adam Eaton came all the way around to score from first base. Given that the Cardinals are hitting .075 in the series and Stephen Strasburg is looking strong, two runs may be all the Nats need.
Immediately after Adam Eaton found a hole with an RBI single that put the Nats up early in NLCS Game 3, Anthony Rendon added to the lead with an RBI double that Marcell Ozuna couldn't get to in left.
Marcell Ozuna is having a rough one. He got caught between second and third with the Cardinals starving for baserunners, and he saw Adam Eaton's fly ball bounce off his glove on a sliding catch, gifting the Nationals a second run.
Adam Eaton, first-pitch swinging, laces a single up the middle with two outs in the third, bringing in the game's first run. He has driven in 3 of the Nationals' 4 runs in the last two games.
Anthony Rendon dove full extension and somehow fielded a 102.9-mph shortstop off the bat of Paul DeJong to steal a sure hit. That ball had an expected batting average of .630.
Chants of M-V-P, M-V-P are echoing throughout Nationals Park after Anthony Rendon makes an incredible play at third base to take a hit -- and potentially more -- away from Paul DeJong.
At the least Cardinals made Stephen Strasburg work a little harder in the second inning as they made him throw 19 pitches. Still, they wasted Marcell Ozuna's leadoff double and their batting average through two games and two innings is a worse-than-Mendoza Line .078.
Stephen Strasburg's curveball looks extremely sharp early. He breezed through the first inning, striking out two and throwing 7 of 10 pitches for strikes.
A gorgeous, 75-degree afternoon ahead of NLCS Game 3 from Nationals Park. And it doesn't get much better than Jack Flaherty versus Stephen Strasburg. This one should be a lot of fun.
VIDEO: Aaron Boone on Gary Sánchez's at bats this postseason, and whether he's considered changing his place in the lineup.
The Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, confirmed that Cardinals pitching coach Mike Maddux had two holes-in-one at their course today. The odds of doing that in the same round have been calculated at 67,000,000 to 1.
Victor Robles is back in the lineup today after not playing since Game 2 of the NLDS with a tight hammy. Dave Martinez said he ran the bases on Sunday at full tilt and looked good. He was unable to take BP on the field because it rained, but hit in the cages and will get a regular BP session today.
