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The Washington Nationals believe they have hit upon a plan that will keep their ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg on the mound throughout the pennant chase and postseason, while also protecting his multimillion dollar right arm. All Strasburg has to do is agree to it.

"We want Stephen to pitch left-handed," said Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo. "We are confident a pitcher of his natural ability can be more than effective with his off hand."

Before the season began, the Nationals vowed to limit Strasburg's innings to protect the right elbow that underwent Tommy John surgery in 2010. Yet it's unlikely team management expected the Nationals to have the best record in baseball or that their protective approach would seriously hurt the franchise's first bid at a World Series title thanks to willingly losing the staff ace in early September. Many have criticized Rizzo for sticking to the plan.

"I don't think you change your decisions just because circumstances change," said Rizzo. "Medical professionals back me up on this. For example, every day I put on SPF 100 sunscreen, regardless of whether or not it's sunny or rainy or winter or even if it's nighttime. How could I look at myself in the mirror if I protected a great young man like Stephen Strasburg less than I do my own skin?"

Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg will explode in 17 days unless Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo decides to remove the bomb that has been attached to the young ace since the beginning of the season.

"We're still evaluating the situation with Stephen," said Rizzo. "But as of now, nothing has changed. He will detonate in a little over two weeks."

The Nationals decided to strap a bomb to their franchise pitcher "to protect him."

"He is coming off of arm surgery and we didn't want him to pitch too many innings," said Rizzo. "We considered putting an innings limit on him, but we knew he would want to pitch beyond that and — if we found ourselves in playoff contention — that we might also be tempted to let him pitch the whole season. But then we thought of the bomb idea. This makes sure Stephen doesn't pitch more than he should."

Strasburg says he has tried to disarm the device that is strapped to his back.

"I want to keep pitching," he said. "More than that, I don't want to die. But I went to San Diego State and didn't even graduate. I don't know what I'm doing. It just looks like a bunch of wires to me."