Nationals 4, Pirates 2: After dropping their previous three games, the Nationals bounced back last night, largely—well, pretty much entirely—on the efforts of Stephen Strasburg. How good has this guy been? He raised his batting average to above .300 with a fifth-inning double, giving himself the second-highest average in last night’s lineup.

Oh, wait. He pitches, doesn’t he? And how. In six innings on the mound—that’s 18 outs—Strasburg struck out 13 Pittsburgh batters, one short of the single-game career high he recorded in his June 2010 debut. Come to think of it, that was against the Pirates, too. Strasburg’s blistering performance last night bumped up his season total to 51 strike outs, tied for most in the major leagues. “When the stuff’s working like tonight, I’m just going to go out there and just throw it,” Strasburg told the Post after winning his third start of the season.

As for that double, it didn’t amount to much, coming in a scoreless fifth inning. Roger Bernadina and Adam LaRoche did the heavy lifting in the sixth inning with a pair of home runs; Rick Ankiel ladled on a security run in the top of the ninth. And Henry Rodriguez avoided a repeat of his meltdown earlier this week for a scoreless ninth to grab his seventh save of the year.