OCTOBER 11TH, 2017 - 9:00 AM: GM Mike Rizzo was live on the air with 106.7 the FAN’s Sports Junkies talking about Stephen Strasburg being too sick to start and defending the Washington Nationals’ decision to go with Tanner Roark in Game 4 of the NLDS with the Chicago Cubs, with the Nats on the verge of elimination, trailing 2-1 in the best-of-five series.
At some point that morning, however, Strasburg made a call to pitching coach Mike Maddux to say he wanted the ball, 12 hours or so after Dusty Baker announced that the right-hander was under the weather and thus unable to start in the elimination game, even after rain washed out the originally scheduled game the night before, allowing the right-hander to pitch on regular rest if he’d been able to go.