Back tightness derails Stephen Strasburg's start in Nats' 7-4 win

The frustrations of Stephen Strasburg's season continued again today as the right-hander was forced to leave a 7-4 win over the Marlins with recurring back discomfort after throwing just 60 pitches over four innings.

"It's just a little bit of back tightness," Strasburg said. "It's something that I kind of dealt with in the middle of the year. It's got some sort of little ball that's in the back there that I can't really figure out what it is. Sometimes it gets upset."

Strasburg ran into trouble right out of the gates this afternoon. Dee Gordon reached on a bunt single to start the game and Ichiro Suzuki quickly followed with a double to right.

Two batters later, Strasburg missed on a fastball, leaving it in Justin Bour's wheelhouse and the Westfield High School (Chantilly, Va.) product demolished it to the second deck in deep right-center field for a three-run homer.

"His velocity was down a little bit," Jayson Werth noticed, watching from left field. "It's so hard to tell from the corner. It's hard to say. That was the only thing I noticed was his velocity. Compared to his last few starts, he (had) looked so good."

Strasburg didn't have the overpowering fastball he displayed in his previous four starts since returning from the disabled list on Aug. 8 after missing more than a month with a strained left oblique. His heater lived in the low-to-mid-90s today after being in the mid-to-high 90s and reaching 99 mph in all other previous starts this month.

After Werth cut the Nats' deficit to one with a two-run shot in the third, Strasburg surrendered a leadoff homer by Derek Dietrich in the fourth. Strasburg yielded two more singles in the frame before exiting with his shortest outing since July 4, when the injured oblique ended his start against the Giants after just 3 2/3 innings.

Nationals manager Matt Williams was asked after if Strasburg indicating pain led to his departure or if the fireballer's struggles were obvious from the dugout.

"A little bit of both," Williams said. "Of course, with any player, it's a little bit of prodding that has to be done because everybody is, 'I'm good.' That's the nature of a player. You can tell with your eyes. Velocity coming down a little bit, feel for the breaking ball and changeup just wasn't there, and looking uncomfortable.

"Certainly, he had more pitching to do, but the last thing we want to do is change mechanics. We can't go there."

Strasburg has failed to pitch into the fifth inning in six of his 18 starts this season. His back discomfort first flared up on May 5, forcing him out of a start against the Marlins at Nationals Park after just three innings.

"We've had the tests, and like I said, it's not really like a muscular thing," Strasburg said. "It's kind of just like this ball. It's strange. It's not a cyst. It's just kind of this little knot that is just like there and it doesn't really hurt to the tough. Sometimes, when it gets a little pissed off, just with the grind of throwing and everything, it just kind of causes everything else around it to get a little upset, too. Last time it kind of flared up, I treated it and it felt great very quickly after that."

Strasburg underwent a chiropractic adjustment back in May to alleviate the irritating pain. His season never was able to get on track and he finally ended up on the DL for the first time when neck tightness knocked him out after just one inning against the Reds on May 29.

Williams and Strasburg weren't ready to discuss a trip back to the DL today.

"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion," Strasburg said. "Last time, it kind of crept up. It was literally, I got the treatment and then in one to two days, it felt normal. I think it's just something that I'm going to have to grind through and get through the year and then figure out exactly what it is in the offseason."

Strasburg spoke after the abbreviated outing of how mentally difficult this year has been.

"To be honest, it's been tough," he said. "But I think it's going to make me stronger as a person and as a player. It's not the way I drew it up, but everything happens for a reason. I'm just going to keep grinding. I'm not going to quit. I know that it's all going to come out in the wash eventually."

The Nationals rallied to take the lead behind an RBI double from Werth and run-scoring singles by Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman in the fifth. Clint Robinson added a two-run homer in the sixth to complete the Nats' scoring.

Doug Fister, Felipe Rivero, Drew Storen and Jonathan Papelbon tossed five scoreless innings in relief of Strasburg.

The Mets held on to beat the Red Sox 5-4, so the Nationals remain 5 1/2 games out of first place in the National League East.