Skid hits seven games, Strasburg scratched from Sunday start

MILWAUKEE - Just when it felt like the Nationals had absorbed all the frustration they could stomach in one disappointing day - after the Brewers had handed them a 6-5 loss, stretching their season-worst losing streak to seven games - fate delivered a parting gut punch.

Stephen Strasburg felt a recurrence of his upper back issue when throwing this afternoon and has been scratched from Sunday's scheduled start, manager Dusty Baker said as he closed his postgame press briefing. Tanner Roark will start in Strasburg's place as the Nationals attempt to halt their skid and salvage the final game of what's now a 2-7 road trip.

"(Strasburg) went down to warm up and he felt it again in the same area," Baker said, adding that he couldn't say whether the right-hander would need a trip to the disabled list. "I don't know. He's day to day."

Strasburg was scratched 90 minutes before his scheduled Monday night start in Los Angeles against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw with what was officially termed an upper back strain. After throwing a bullpen session Friday at Miller Park, Strasburg said he was feeling fine and that the back issue was a result of having two ribs popped out of alignment in a weight room mishap, but that he was feeling much better after the ribs were manipulated back into place by a chiropractor.

The Nationals are now facing an unsure immediate future with Strasburg to go along with a frustrating slide and another poor outing by left-hander Gio Gonzalez, who was tagged for six runs on six hits over three innings on Saturday, his ERA climbing to 4.73 and his frustration level rising.

"Its one of those things I don't have an answer to," said Gonzalez, who is 0-6 with an 8.44 ERA in his last seven starts. "I'm going to keep pitching until the ball's out of my hand. I'm going to keep fighting. I still feel like I can pitch in this game and get outs. ... It's just going their way right now. A lot of balls are going not my way."

The first inning set an ominous stage for Gonzalez's latest labors, starting with an infield hit by leadoff man Jonathan Villar - "a 17-hopper," the southpaw called it - followed by a single to left by Aaron Hill and Chris Carter's three-run homer off a pitch that hung over the middle of the plate and ended up deep in the left field stands. Villar's two-out RBI single made it 4-1 in the second.

"It's just that he can't get that third out," lamented Baker. "Usually when it happens, it happens after two outs. They bounced one up the middle on Gio that caused a run. Right now, just can't get that third out. Things aren't going good for us."

Take away that three-spot in the first and the fact that the Nats actually clawed back might have actually meant something.

Gonzalez can't pinpoint what happens to him when he gets two outs, but the fact that he often has runners on base in such situations isn't helping matters.

"It's just unfortunate the way it's going," he said.

The Nationals got five shutout innings from relievers Yusmeiro Petit, Matt Belisle and Sammy Solis, which allowed the bats to chip away at the deficit. But they were only 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and three of their runs in Saturday's attempted comeback came on sacrifice flies. The big hit that Baker talked about needing in his pregame media session again eluded the Nationals, despite 10 hits and multiple opportunities to cash in runs.

With one out in the seventh, the bases were loaded and Ryan Zimmerman hammered a ball to center field. It backed up Keon Broxton, who hauled it in on the warning track, deflating a dugout that thought Zimmerman might have come up with a game-changing grand slam. In the eighth, with the potential tying run at second base and two out, Jayson Werth grounded out. Bryce Harper's leadoff single in the ninth went for naught, with Wilson Ramos grounding into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.

"I think it's probably more frustrating than anything," Werth said. "We battled today, we came back, had some opportunities. I had a big at-bat in the eighth there with a guy on and a chance to tie the game, and those are the situations you live for. I want to come through, but it didn't happen."

Werth has weathered plenty of losing streaks over his career, and knows the scales will eventually be tipped in the Nats' favor. He feels for his teammates that aren't coming through when they have opportunities, and especially for Gonzalez, who seems to be shouldering the weight of the world on his suddenly ineffective left arm.

"I'm sure he's frustrated," Werth said. "It's tough, man. It's tough when things aren't going your way. The old expression, when it rains it pours - right now, it's raining cats and dogs for Gio. It's tough."

But Gonzalez will apparently get at least another chance to turn his season around. Asked if the lefty would make his next start, Baker replied: "Yeah, as of right now, he's going to make his next start."