Braves, heat and humidity combine to take down Strasburg

The air temperature was 94 degrees when Stephen Strasburg took the mound this evening at Nationals Park, the heat index 103 (which actually was down seven degrees from a few hours earlier).

Heat, humidity and Strasburg have not made for a great combination over the years, and they certainly did not mesh well tonight during what became an 8-5 loss to the Braves on the most uncomfortable evening of the summer.

"Obviously, as you can see, I sweat profusely," said the right-hander, who has been known to soak through multiple jerseys per start. "I give it everything I have. It's still a learning process. It just seems like I've got to keep working on the preparation part and seeing what I can do to keep my hand dry and keep my legs feeling good."

Strasburg gave up six runs (matching his season-high) and lasted only 5 1/3 innings (his second-shortest appearance of 2016). The conditions may have made the task more difficult, but he refused to blame it on that.

"I don't want to sit here and make excuses," he said. "I didn't execute tonight."

The Nationals as a whole didn't in their series opener against the Braves, owners of the majors' worst record but playing better in recent weeks. Dusty Baker warned earlier in the day about the danger of underestimating this opponent, and his concern was validated a few hours later.

The bullpen couldn't keep the deficit quite close enough to give the lineup a reasonable chance to rally. Though the lineup didn't fully take advantage of what opportunities they had.

In the end, though, Strasburg was front and center in this loss, his second in a row after dropping only one of his first 16 decisions this season.

Strasburg was in trouble from the outset, walking leadoff man Ender Inciarte on five pitches. Two batters later, he served up the first of Freddie Freeman's big hits of the night: an RBI double to deep center field.

Jace Peterson's solo homer in the top of the second continued the trend, and then Freeman delivered the biggest blow of them all: a three-run homer to left on a 2-2 changeup left up in the zone. It was the Atlanta first baseman's fourth career homer off Strasburg, most among anyone he has faced in his career.

By the time he reached the sixth inning, Strasburg's pitch count had already surpassed 100.

"He didn't just run out of gas," Baker said. "He ran out of gas because he had a lot pitches in that inning, in a couple innings."

Having now surrendered 10 runs and 15 hits over his last 10 innings, Strasburg has seen his ERA jump from 2.63 to 3.07 in the span of a week.

"Just can't really worry about the last start," he said. "Just try to make the improvements. I really didn't feel like I executed as well as I did in the last start. They just put some good swings on the ball."