BOSTON -- While Gio Gonzalez, who will start Saturday's game at Fenway Park against the Red Sox, was flattered to be rumored as a potential trade target of the Red Sox this past offseason, he's got no complaints about how it all turned out.

"I remember the conversations that there were a couple of teams that wanted to get me and Boston was one of them," Gonzalez said, mentioning the presence of former Oakland A's teammates Ryan Sweeney and Andrew Bailey as enticements. "When all that came down, I just wanted to be on a team that would give me an opportunity to play and to win. Whether that was Boston or whoever, I was just like, 'Hey, give me a chance.' The Nationals took a chance on me and it's been a blessing ever since.

"It was exciting. Boston is a great organization and it's exciting to have a championship team asking for you. It puts a smile of your face that a team like that is looking at you."

After four years with the A's, Gonzalez was dealt to the Nationals two days before last Christmas, the key figure in a six-player trade, and certainly has found Washington to his liking. He enters Saturday's game with a 7-2 record and a 2.31 ERA. He has allowed just 40 hits in 66 1/3 innings with 84 strikeouts offsetting 28 walks. He's held opponents to a .172 batting average, best in the league.

In addition to his success on the mound, Gonzalez has enjoyed the different perspective of standing at the plate (though he has just two hits in 19 at-bats).

"It's different," he said. "You really appreciate it in a different way when you're standing up there with the fastballs and breaking balls."

Gonzalez also has enjoyed the view of watching Stephen Strasburg and the rest of the first-place Nationals rotation up close.

"The way he's pitching is just unbelievable," Gonzalez said of Strasburg. "And it's not just him but Jordan Zimmerman, Chien-Ming Wang, Ross Detwiler, Edwin Jackson. I get a front-row seat every time they pitch.

Of Strasburg, Gonzalez said, "I watch him very closely. If I have to go in the clubhouse for a minute, I'm watching on TV, in the dugout I'm watching his mechanics very closely. It's kind of a weird technique, but I've been doing it since Oakland. I'd watch Dallas Braden or Trevor Cahill out there, and be right on that railing watching them pitch."

As much as he's enjoying being in Washington, Gonzalez said he's happy to be back at Fenway.

"It brings back good memories," he said. "It's a great ballpark, it brings back memories from my time with Oakland. It's going to be a fun series."