Winning streak over for Strasburg, but positives come out of loss

The winning streak is over for Stephen Strasburg. But what might be more impressive is how he did not give up after a rocky first two innings.

Justin Turner slammed two homers and had five RBIs as the Dodgers built a 6-1 lead through three innings. Turner connected on 3-2 slider in the first and a 3-0 four-seam fastball in the third against Strasburg, who suffered his first loss since September 9, 2015, as the Dodgers dropped the Nationals 6-3.

Manager Dusty Baker pointed towards the pair of Turner at-bats as the culprit. After that, Strasburg was back to normal.

"Stras fell behind and he hung a slider 3-2 and the other was a 3-0 home run. That's the one that really hurt, the 3-0 swing," Baker said. "I don't know if that's having his number or Stras getting behind. Usually, he doesn't get behind like that, that was kind of the ballgame. Turner 5 and the Nationals 3."

Strasburg was the eighth starting pitcher in major league history to begin a season 13-0. Prior to Thursday, the Nationals were 20-1 in Strasburg's 21 previous starts. Strasburg said one reason he couldn't get going early was because he was allowing the Dodgers to get into good hitters counts.

"It was just a grind for whatever reason," Strasburg said. "Couldn't get ahead on him in those AB's. But I really wasn't getting ahead on some other guys, too. I think once I got past those first two innings, I started to throw more first-pitch strikes, but that's always a big point in the game is getting ahead on the hitters."

Baker said watching Strasburg hang in and continue to pitch was the biggest positive takeaway from the loss.

"I was actually more impressed by Stras today that he didn't blow up. It was extremely hot today and he kept the game where it was," Baker said.

"During that streak he was outstanding. You know every streak's going to end. That's the best streak I've ever seen, I think. So it was just untimely that it ended today, but you knew it was going to end some day. So now you just go back to the drawing board and start a new streak."

Strasburg said that he made a pact with himself that he would not let unusual adversity, whether a game situation or the weather or some other outside influence, affect his game. He employed that philosophy Thursday.

"I told myself at the start of the year going into last year that I was going to be relentless regardless of circumstance," Strasburg said. "I'm going to go out there and battle the whole time. Sometimes it might not be pretty and sometimes it will look pretty good. I'm just going to continue to do that."

Strasburg felt pretty good about how the start ended. Following the Turner homers, Strasburg settled in, dispatching 12 of the final 13 batters he faced.

"It happens," Strasburg reflected. "Sometimes you make decent pitches and they hit it, and sometimes you make really bad pitches and they hit it as well. So just tried to battle out there today and left on a high note. Something that I'm (gonna) hold on to."

But Strsburg said he didn't make any vast adjustments following Turner's homers. He just got back to what got him to 13-0.

"Nothing really changed," Strasburg said. "It was just a couple of pitches where I just didn't execute when I needed to and I got beat on it."

The 16-game winning streak for Strasburg was the second-longest streak in D.C. baseball history behind right-hander Firpo Marberry's 17-game streak from 1930-31. Strasburg said sometime along this run he could have been tagged with a loss, but it didn't happen.

"There's been games where I feel like I probably deserved a loss and the team picked me up," Strasburg said. "Just couldn't get it done today, but I'm going to learn from it and hopefully get back out there and give them a better chance to win next time."