The Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Nationals 5-1 on Friday night, dealing Stephen Strasburg his third consecutive loss. The Nationals ace pitcher had a splendid first half of the season, but the loss ended it on a sour note, and abruptly stopped his team's four game winning streak. Strasburg allowed three runs -- two of them earned -- on eight hits and a walk, striking out six. Meanwhile, Rockies left-handed pitcher Drew Pomeranz cooled of the Nationals previously hot lineup.
"It's not a good feeling, but what can you do?" Strasburg asked. "You can only go out there and give it everything you have. Sometimes it's not going to work out."
Rockies first baseman Tyler Colvin became the first player to hit two homers off Strasburg in the same game. In the process, he drove in three runs. Colvin joined Atlanta Braves second baseman Dan Uggla as the second player to hit multiple home runs of Strasburg.
"All I can really think of is two pitches," Strasburg said. "I don't think they were the right pitches to throw in that situation. I feel like I didn't have the right mind-set, so it should be an easy fix."
The Rockies didn't hit the ball particularly hard against Strasburg, but over six innings they forced him to throw 107 pitches. The fact is, over the last 11 games the Nationals have played better when Strasburg is on the bench. The Nationals are 7-1 when he doesn't start and 0-3 when he does.
In Colvin's first plate appearance, Strasburg had him in the hole with a 0-2 count. The right-hander threw a 97-mph fastball that Colvin blasted to right field. The ball nearly hit the third deck, and gave Colorado a 1-0 lead.
"Dumb pitch," Strasburg said. "I spiked a change-up and he swung at it. You got a guy with some power up there, that's the last thing you want to do, try and throw an elevated fastball and miss down in the zone a little bit, right into his swing plane."
In the two games prior to Friday night, the Nationals had overcome deficits of at least three runs, but they couldn't do it three straight times. They were unable to figure out Pomeranz, and their bullpen gave up two runs to extend Colorado's lead. Thus, Strasburg had to take another loss and now he's has the All-Star break to think about it.
