No Strasburg For Nats, No Problem For Lannan
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By DERON SNYDER
NEW YORK — Pitcher John Lannan entered Citi Field’s visitors clubhouse at 4:30 p.m., wearing a dress shirt and slacks. He went to his cubicle, washed down a couple of pills and began unbuttoning his shirt.
Looking at him from the other corner of the back row, with no one standing between them, was pitcher Stephen Strasburg. He was almost finished putting on his uniform and the surreal moment didn’t go unnoticed. They exchanged some light-hearted banter and chuckled.
The Washington Nationals played game No. 143 Wednesday night, a 2-0 victory against the New York Mets that basically was like any other game for all but two of Washington’s players — Strasburg, the phenom whose season was shut down last week, and Lannan, the one-time rotation stalwart now filling the gap.
Strasburg was missing the first of however many more starts he would have made this season, a decision you might have heard about. Lannan was starting his third game for the Nationals this season, but the first in which he wasn’t hopping a flight back to Syracuse afterward.
For those two, the season made a hairpin curve.
For their teammates, not so much.
