As an unbeaten pitcher for a first-place team, Stephen Strasburg is at the top of his game.
Given where he was a year ago, perhaps the Washington Nationals' star can serve as a positive example for struggling Matt Harvey of the New York Mets.
Strasburg struck out 11, and Washington hit three of its season-high five home runs off Harvey in a 7-4 victory Tuesday night at Nationals Park.
Strasburg (8-0) gave up two runs and four hits over 6 2/3 innings in defeating Harvey and the Mets for the second time in six days. Strasburg has five games this season with at least 10 strikeouts and 26 over his seven-year career.
Last season, Strasburg spent two stints on the disabled list and was 3-5 before bouncing back.
"There were definitely a lot of lows for me last year," he said. "I am definitely trying to learn from that, to try to ride the roller coaster and stay consistent."
Harvey (3-7) can relate. After going 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA last season, the right-hander is in danger of losing his spot in the rotation after a third straight miserable outing.
"We've got to think what's not just best for Matt, but what's best for us moving forward at the moment," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "There are a lot of things to consider. We're not going to make any rash judgments tonight. We're going to sleep on it."
Harvey left the clubhouse before talking to reporters.
His early departure from the scene mirrored his performance on the mound. Harvey allowed five runs and eight hits over five rocky innings and has yielded 16 earned runs and 31 hits over his past three starts.
"I'm really surprised," Collins said. "This guy is way too good to continue like this. But the guy tonight he faced was in a similar spot last year."
Strasburg is the third starter in franchise history to start 8-0.
"It means he's one of the best out there and he's pitching like it," manager Dusty Baker said. "A lot of people say the wins don't matter, but they matter to the guys on the team and matter to the person getting the wins."
Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon hit successive solo shots to put Washington ahead in the fourth inning, and Daniel Murphy added a two-run drive off his former teammate in the fifth for a 5-1 lead.
The three homers allowed by Harvey tied a career high. The former first-round draft pick hasn't lasted more than six innings in any of his 10 starts and has an unsightly 6.08 ERA.
Ben Revere connected off Antonio Bastardo in the seventh and Wilson Ramos went deep against Jim Henderson in the eighth for Washington.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Eric Campbell homered for the Mets, whose four-game winning streak ended.
Making his major league debut, New York third baseman Ty Kelly went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
Strasburg retired the first 10 batters, six by strikeout, before Cabrera homered into the Nationals bullpen beyond the wall in right field.
Zimmerman and Rendon answered in the bottom half, and Bryce Harper delivered a sacrifice fly in the fifth before Murphy went deep.
Campbell hit his first home run of the season in the ninth off Shawn Kelley.
Et cetera
Blohm named state's best baseball player
Archbishop Spalding pitcher Tyler Blohm was named the Maryland Gatorade State Baseball Player of the Year. Blohm entered Tuesday night's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association AConference championship game against Gilman with a 9-0 record and a 0.83 ERA in 11 appearances. The Maryland commit had given up just seven earned runs on 27 hits in 59 innings and walked 10 batters while striking out 91.
—Bob Hough, Baltimore Sun Media Group
NFL: The Minnesota Vikings cut running back Brandon Ross (Maryland) on Monday. Ross, who had been signed as an undrafted free agent May 2, rushed for 958 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 6.4 yards as a fifth-year senior in 2015. On Friday, former Maryland defensive back Sean Davis signed a four-year contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a second-round draft selection and the No. 58 overall pick after a four-year career in College Park that featured 40 starts and 50 appearances.
—Daniel Gallen, Baltimore Sun Media Group
Maryland college football: Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Mason Zimmerman will transfer from Maryland, according to a report from WTOL-11 in Toledo, Ohio. Zimmerman retweeted and liked the report from his own Twitter account. Zimmerman was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2015 out of Anthony Wayne (Ohio) High, and 247sports.com rated him as the No. 18 center and No. 63 Ohio prospect in its composite rankings. He redshirted last season.
—Daniel Gallen
More college football: Junior running back Ryan Cary rushed for two touchdowns in the first half as Johns Hopkins capped its nine-day trip to Italy with a 56-0 victory Monday over the Lazio Marines. The game, part of the first foreign trip in the history of the Blue Jays, was played at the Centro Sportivo Olimpico dell'Esercito in Rome. The Marines are in the middle of their Italian Football Leagues season and have a 4-2 record.
College baseball: Maryland freshman second baseman Nick Dunn and sophomore right handed pitchers Taylor Bloom of Crofton and Brian Shaffer were named to the All-Big Ten third team. Dunn was also named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team along with outfielder Marty Costes (Archbishop Curley).
Women's college soccer: Navy named Joe Mallia an assistant coach.
Men's college tennis: Bowdoin (18-3) rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Johns Hopkins (19-6), 5-4, on Monday in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Boxing: Light heavyweight Franchon Crews of Baltimore advanced to the semifinal round at the 2016 Women's World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, by defeating Maria Kovacs of Hungary in a unanimous decision. Crews will fight China's Xiaoli Yang at 7 a.m. Thursday.
—From Sun staff and news services