Nationals Come From Behind to Beat Cardinals

Stephen Strasburg ran into a little trouble in his first spring start for Washington, allowing five straight batters to reach base Saturday in the Nationals' 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Strasburg got through the first inning on 12 pitches, then gave three hits and two walks to begin the second. The Cardinals scored twice and Strasburg left with two outs and 28 more pitches.

''You want to go out there and put up zeroes, but at this point in spring training, I know I shouldn't necessarily be clicking on all cylinders right now, the first game, because I'm trying to pace myself and at the same time, make sure I'm on top of my game at the end of the year,'' Strasburg said.

Strasburg said he had command of all of his pitches, except for his changeup, which he said was cutting a little more than he would have liked.

''I got some weak contact, so that's all I could ask for,'' he said.

Trying to work out of the jam he found himself in the second inning, well, that's just part of spring training.

''I think it's good to get in a situation like that,'' Strasburg said. ''Obviously, you don't like walking guys to start the inning, but (I'm) probably going to do that over the course of the season anyway, so it's good to kind of get your feet wet in those situations from the get-go,'' he said.

Cardinals starter Jamie Garcia gave up three hits and one run in 1 1-3 innings.