OK, so he didn’t just struggle against the Marlins tonight. It was the worst start of his brief major league career.
Strasburg failed to complete five innings for the first time, allowing a career-high six runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings. The Marlins hitters were able to square him up with relative ease, but Dan Uggla was his worst enemy, connecting for a two-run homer in the first inning and a two-run double in the third.
Strasburg threw 51 out of 84 pitches for strikes while striking out four and walking two. The rookie phenom’s ERA jumped all the way from 2.32 ERA to 3.07 on the year.
We should be willing to give Strasburg a mulligan tonight, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Nats GM Mike Rizzo chewed all of his fingernails off watching this one.