Strasburg, Conley duel in Miami (Nats win 7-0)

MIAMI - Stephen Strasburg's early season mastery is continuing early on tonight at Marlins Park, but Adam Conley is matching his counterpart pitch-for-pitch, leading to a scoreless game through four innings.

He put one man on base in each of his first three innings, but Strasburg kept the Marlins from stringing together anything remotely resembling a rally. He pitched around a two-out walk of Christian Yelich in the bottom of the first, battling back to strike out Giancarlo Stanton with a 2-2 curveball.

Strasburg induced a 6-4-3 double play out of J.T. Realmuto to end the bottom of the second, then didn't let Dee Gordon's two-out walk in the bottom of the third cause any damage. He departed for the dugout with a manageable pitch count of 42, having allowed only one infield single, two walks and only one ball that left the infield.

The Nationals couldn't muster any early run support for Strasburg, though, despite some strong opportunities against Conley. Anthony Rendon's one-out double in the top of the first went for naught after Bryce Harper struck out and Ryan Zimmerman grounded out. Daniel Murphy's leadoff double (which was followed by Jayson Werth's walk) in the second also was squandered when Wilson Ramos hit into a double play and Danny Espinosa struck out.

That left the Nationals 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position through only two innings, a disturbing trend that manager Dusty Baker has brought up a few times already this season. Here's a surprising stat, though: They entered the day hitting .327 with two outs and runners in scoring position, the majors' third-best mark in that category.

Meanwhile, first base umpire Jerry Layne had to depart tonight's game in the second inning after he appeared to injure himself trying to jump out of the way of Murphy's double down the line. Layne remained in the game for a couple of minutes after the play but ultimately had to remove himself and head to the trainer's room. The remaining three umpires continued shorthanded.

Update: Make it six innings of scoreless ball for both clubs. Strasburg and Conley continue to dominate.

Strasburg has allowed only three hits (two of them infield singles) while striking out eight, including Stanton on a changeup to end the sixth and leave a man on base. He's at 83 pitches overall.

Conley, meanwhile, is at 82 pitches through his six scoreless innings, allowing four hits so far while striking out eight.

Update II: It's scoreless no more, thanks to Werth and Ramos, who hit back-to-back pitches from Conley to nearly the exact same spot near the Home Run Thingamabob beyond the fence in left-center. That was Werth's 200th career homer. Together, they've given the Nats a 2-0 lead and knocked Conley from the game.

Update III: Sweet Fancy Moses, make it 7-0 Nats after two more homers in the seventh, including Bryce Harper's second career grand slam. That's, of course, his second grand slam in a week, his fifth homer in six games and his seventh homer overall. Ryan Zimmerman followed with a solo shot, giving the Nats an incredible four homers in a span of eight batters.

Update IV: That'll do it. Nats win 7-0 behind the four-homer top of the seventh and eight scoreless innings from Strasburg. They improve to 10-3 on the season.