Strasburg stars as Nationals beat Orioles 9-3

  Stephen Strasburg hit his first major league home run and struck out eight in five innings to carry the Washington Nationals past the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 Sunday.

 

   Strasburg sent an 0-2 pitch from Wei-Yin Chen into the Baltimore bullpen in the fourth inning to put the Nationals ahead 5-3. After dusting off his home run trot and returning to the dugout, Strasburg responded to a curtain call by waving to the crowd of 41,918.

 

   The hard-throwing Strasburg had five hits in 40 big league at-bats before Sunday. He singled and scored in the third inning, then followed a shot by Jesus Flores with one of his own in the fourth.