MLB

Stephen Strasburg’s Season Is Over

According to Byron Kerr of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, Nationals manager Davey Johnson has announced that Stephen Strasburg’s season is over.

This comes the day after Strasburg was knocked around for five runs over three innings against the Miami Marlins, and Johnson’s remarks that he was too focused on his impending shutdown as opposed to the start at hand. So Johnson pulled the plug a start early, even though September 12th against the Mets was his original date of departure.

Here’s exactly what Johnson had to say according to CSN Washington (via Hardball Talk):

“To be honest with you, I think he was thinking too much about the decision of what we were going to shut him down,” Davey Johnson said. “And he kind wore it like it. … I think he wasn’t focused as much on the game as he was on the impending shutdown. Just the way I read it.”

Strasburg disagreed with Johnson’s assessment, but it doesn’t matter now. The Nationals will have to wait until 2013 for his services, and must now lockup the NL East and make a postseason run without their ace. More importantly, Strasburg came 2/3 of an inning short of the 160-180 estimated innings limit for the season, with his finally tally at 159 1/3. He did, however, have a pretty good season, ending with a 3.16 ERA and a whip of 1.15 to go with 197 strikeouts.

[Byron Kerr, via Hardball Talk]

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