WASHINGTON — Stephen Strasburg gave up a homer to the first batter he faced Friday night, then struggled to find the strike zone throughout the opening inning.
Recovering quickly from a mediocre start, Strasburg shut down San Francisco the rest of the way, allowing just three hits in six innings, and Adam Dunn homered twice, leading the Nationals past the Giants 8-1.
Before an announced crowd of 34,723, nearly double the 17,364 of a night earlier, Strasburg tried to put a 97-mph fastball past leadoff hitter Andres Torres on a 3-1 count. Torres drove the pitch off the facing of the second deck in right, giving him a homer in three consecutive games and four of the past six.
The next three batters also made solid contact, each lining the ball to an outfielder, and Strasburg needed 17 pitches to get out of the first.
“After that, I was like, ‘You know what? Bottom line, if they’re going to beat me, they’re going to beat me (with) me calling my own game,’ ” Strasburg said.
It was Strasburg’s first win in nearly a month. He finally got some run support and finally earned the third win of his much-ballyhooed major league career.
After starting his career 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings in his first two starts, Strasburg went 0-2 over his next four appearances. Entering Friday, the Nationals scored one run for Strasburg over the previous 25 innings he was in the game — and zero over his past 18.
They took care of that against Matt Cain (6-8), who has lost four consecutive decisions. He allowed eight runs — seven earned — and 11 hits in 6 2/3 innings, including Dunn’s solo homer in the fourth and two-run shot in the seventh.
