Stephen Strasburg, who was limited to just five innings in 2020, made his first appearance since Aug. 14 on Tuesday night when he started in the Washington Nationals' exhibition game against the Houston Astros.

He was cleared to throw 40 pitches in his first outing. He tossed 38 pitches with four strikeouts and one walk in 1 2/3 hitless, scoreless innings.

"I learned that my fastball command is better than last time I pitched," he said. "Just reading the swings, it seemed like it had some life to it, which was nice. It's really just kind of fine-tuning when you want to expand the zone and what guys you want to do that on."