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Jun 27, 2010 - 11:43 PM Washington (33-42) at Atlanta (44-31), 7:10 p.m. EDT

As he attempts to rebound from his first loss, Washington Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg might not have to face the man he could end up battling for NL Rookie of the Year honors.

A potentially intriguing matchup with Atlanta Braves star Jason Heyward might not happen Monday night for Strasburg as he tries to add to what's been a thrilling start to his major league career.

In his latest effort Wednesday, Strasburg (2-1, 1.78 ERA) broke a 55-year-old major league record with 41 strikeouts in his first four starts, but he was on the wrong end of a 1-0 defeat to visiting Kansas City.

"I know there's going to be times when it's going to be like this in the future," Strasburg said. "And there's going to be times when I'm not pitching well, and they'll just go out there and score a ton of runs and save me. It's baseball."

The 21-year-old right-hander allowed a season-high nine hits, but he also struck out nine in six innings and issued no walks for the third time.

While Strasburg's addition has not kept Washington (33-43) out of the NL East basement, Atlanta (44-32) is at the top thanks in part to Heyward.

The 20-year-old right fielder leads all rookies with 45 RBIs and is second with 11 homers, but he's been battling a sore thumb and will get an MRI on Monday. Heyward, hitting .181 in June after batting .337 in May, was used as a pinch hitter Saturday and sat out Sunday.

"It's nothing major because I've been on the field the last two months with it," he told the Braves' official website. "But it's something that's creating a problem to be consistent, that I want to get taken care of now instead of having to worry about it later."

His decreased production has hurt the Braves, batting .232 over their last 10 games.

However, Atlanta is a major league-best 26-8 at home this season, winning 16 of 18 at Turner Field. The Braves had a seven-game home win streak snapped Sunday with a 10-4 loss to Detroit.

Washington, meanwhile, has dropped 20 of 24 away from home and is coming off a road sweep to the majors' worst team. The Nationals fell 4-3 in Baltimore on Sunday for their fourth straight loss overall.

They have dropped 10 of 12, hitting .213 while getting held to 34 runs, and now they have to face Tim Hudson (7-3, 2.54).

The veteran right-hander has won his last seven decisions against them and is 8-1 with a 1.62 ERA in 14 all-time matchups with the Nationals franchise. Hudson gave up two runs and five hits over seven innings May 6 at Washington in a 3-2 defeat.

Hudson has received just six runs of support in his last three outings and lost two of them despite giving up seven runs in 22 innings.

He's 4-1 with a 1.87 ERA in five starts at Turner Field this year.