Ian Desmond flipped a two-out single to right field in the ninth inning to drive in pinch-runner Brett Carroll from second base after Nationals newcomer Chad Tracy doubled off the still-dormant Wrigley Field ivy in right, missing a home run by a foot.
Right-hander Brad Lidge took the mound in the bottom of the inning to record his 224th career save -- his first in a Nats uniform, and preserved when third baseman Ryan Zimmerman gunned down the tying run at the plate.
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Yet Strasburg left the game with a 1-0 deficit due primarily to veteran Cubs starter Ryan Dempster, who seemed inspired by direct competition with the Nats youthful fireballer. Dempster pitched 7.2 innings and struck out 10 Washington hitters, who spent the majority of the windy afternoon flailing at his split-finger fastball and tailing change-up.
The Nationals squandered two early chances to stake Strasburg with a lead. Desmond slapped the first pitch of the game into shallow right field for a single, and moved to second base when the next hitter, second-baseman Danny Espinosa, worked his first walk of the afternoon on five pitches.
Both runners advanced on Ryan Zimmerman's towering fly ball to deep left-centerfield, and which appeared to be headed downtown before the Wrigley winds shoved it back into play and into former National Marlon Byrd's glove for the first out of the inning.
First baseman Adam LaRoche, batting for the first time since his 2011 season abruptly ended in late May due to a shoulder injury, promptly struck out -- the first of three he would suffer against Dempster. Five-hole hitter Jason Werth then flied out to right to end the inning.
In all, Nationals hitters stranded six runners in scoring position; Werth alone marooned four of them, but like his former Philadelphia-turned-Washington teammate Lidge, he came through in the end.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning, Werth worked a walk on six Kerry Wood fastballs, pushing Desmond home from third and tying the game 1-1. The young Nationals shortstop ended the day with three hits in five trips to the plate, along with an RBI and a run scored.
Chicago's lone run came in the fourth in a bizarre sequence that only the Cubs could manufacture. After shortstop Starlin Castro grounded out to short on a 97 mph Strasburg offering that splintered his bat, Alfonso Soriano singled to center.
Soriano advanced to second when Ian Stewart tapped a dribbler that was fielded cleanly by catcher Wilson Ramos, but who tried to get the lead runner. Ramos' errant, ill-advised throw carried past Espinosa and into centerfield.
But Ramos atoned for his error moments later, picking off Soriano as he attempted to steal third. Jeff Baker walked, bringing up Byrd, who lined a fastball down the left-field line to score Stewart from second, and stake the Cubs to a 1-0 lead.
The Cubs' last chance came in the ninth. With one out, Stewart smashed a 90 mph fastball to the right-field wall. Again the Wrigley Field winds toyed with the ball, which dropped just out of Werth's reach for a triple.
Pinch runner Joe Mather replaced Stewart, and dashed home on Baker's sharply hit grounder to third, which Zimmerman easily picked and fired to Ramos, who tagged the sliding base runner. Byrd then watched a Lidge fastball catch the outside corner for the final out.
