Strasburg takes a curtain call after hitting a home run May 20. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

We’re dangerously close to the end of Stephen Strasburg’s season. After last night’s start, in which Strasburg notched his 15th win of the year after throwing six innings and striking out 10 hapless Atlanta Braves batters, the pitcher is now fewer than 15 frames away from the rumored low end of his team-mandated innings limit.

Through last night’s start, Strasburg has thrown 145 and 1/3 innings in his first full season back from the Tommy John surgery that ended his rookie year after just a few months. With Nats general manager Mike Rizzo said to be yanking the ball from Strasburg’s hand once he hits 160 innings—the same amount Jordan Zimmermann pitched last year after he returned from Tommy John surgery—Strasburg has three, maybe four starts left. (Strasburg’s innings limit is rumored to be anywhere between 160 and 180; Rizzo has not officially stated when the end will come.)

But with the end of Strasburg’s season six innings more imminent, more interested parties are weighing in on whether the Nationals’ plan should be carried out. And playoffs be damned, because the team has firmly maintained that once Strasburg is done for the year, he’s not coming back in October. Baseball Prospectus, based on the latest standings, gives the Nationals, who currently hold a seven-game lead in the National League East, a 100 percent chance of making the post-season.

We’re far past the point of D.C.’s sportswriters weighing in—every reporter and columnist covering the Nats seems to be in agreement with the innings limit—but now those with a tangential relationship to the team are getting their thoughts in. Mayor Vince Gray, a onetime Major League Baseball prospect, told the Post’s Mike DeBonis yesterday that he supports pulling Strasburg in a few weeks’ time. But Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), speaking like many an excited season ticket-holder, told DeBonis that Strasburg should stay in.

Among those who agree with Evans? The man who gave Strasburg’s surgical procedure its name. Tommy John, who was the first pitcher to have his ulnar collateral ligament reconstructed, told ESPN Radio last week he disagrees with the Nationals’ plan. And Tim McCarver, Fox’s horribly overrated commentator, invoked John’s position several times on Saturday during a broadcast of a Yankees-Red Sox game.

But the Post’s editorial board on Monday endorsed the shutdown. Sure, it might disappoint fans who want to see Strasburg lead the Nationals’ formidable pitching rotation into this post-season, but the team needs the pitcher for the long haul:

The pitcher wants to pitch. “They’re gonna have to rip the ball out of my hands,” he has said. Even so, the Nationals are making a wise move. We hope they won’t need him to push deep into the playoffs this year. They do need him to be healthy for the next 10.

Get used to it, people. With probably fewer than five starts remaining in Strasburg’s season, the bickering is only going to get louder until someone else is penciled in to start after Ross Detweiler and before Gio Gonzalez.

Here’s the latest readout from the Stephen Strasburg shutdown meter, once again based on the prognosticated limit of 160 innings:

Rumored innings limit: 160

Stephen Strasburg innings pitched to date: 145 and 1/3

Stephen Strasburg innings remaining: 14 and 2/3