Stephen Strasburg actually declined to start Game 4 vs. Cubs

Apparently, Stephen Strasburg was the one who made the decision not to start Game 4 against the Cubs on Wednesday.

The Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals were scheduled to play Game 4 of their NLDS on Tuesday, but that never happened. Due to inclement weather, the game has been postponed to Wednesday, so we’ll need to wait another day to see if the Cubs can advance back to the NLCS or if the Nationals can live to fight another day.

Now the main controversy coming out of the postponement Tuesday was the apparent decision of Nationals manager Dusty Baker not to start one of his best pitchers on the roster, Stephen Strasburg. It looked as if Baker had the world handed to him on a silver platter with the opportunity to start Strasburg, and basically, he spit on it.

But now we’re finding out that really wasn’t the case at all. It actually wasn’t Baker who made the call to keep Strasburg out of Wednesday, rather it was the pitcher himself. According to Bob Nightengale and USA TODAY, Strasburg was the one who made the decision not to pitch because he was feeling under the weather.

What’s even a little more interesting from the report is the fact that Baker tried to cover for Strasburg by saying he threw a bullpen session prior to the game being postponed in Chicago. Nightengale notes in the report that Strasburg didn’t throw any pitches on Tuesday, but he was in the bullpen on Monday.

So that clears up some of that controversy from before, although you know some Nationals fans won’t take this decision by Strasburg well. Regardless of sickness or anything else, they’ll cite this move as nothing but selfish.

If the Nationals lose on Wednesday and get bounced from the series, then those criticisms will just get louder. But if they come out with the win and Strasburg can close the series out in Game 5 at home, then all will be forgotten for the time being.