Strasburg laments predictability of pitches that led to homers

Stephen Strasburg gives up home runs, but typically not in bunches. He entered Tuesday night's game against the Giants having surrendered three homers in a start only two previous times in his career.

So when it happened this time, when he surrendered three long balls in a span of only eight batters, to the least productive lineup in the National League, it obviously raised some eyebrows. What exactly happened?

To listen to Strasburg's explanation, what happened was a simple case of predictability.

All three home runs - Evan Longoria's solo shot in the fifth, Steven Duggar's two-run blast later that inning, Brandon Belt's solo drive in the sixth - came off two-seam fastballs that ran right over the heart of the plate.

The location wasn't good, but Strasburg was more upset with himself for attempting those pitches than anything.

"I didn't think they were too bad of pitches, especially early in the count," the right-hander said. "I think it's more so of not falling into a pattern as much."

Longoria's homer came on a 2-2 fastball, but Duggar and Belt's blasts each came on the first pitch of their respective at-bats. In Strasburg's mind, maybe they were sitting on fastballs.

"You go off the scouting report as much as you can, but I think in certain situations guys will come off that, especially with the secondary stuff that I have," he said. "So I just have to be more aware of it out there in situations and not just consistently start the guy off with heater, heater, heater, especially as the game goes on."

Strasburg, of course, is responsible for every pitch he throws. But he's also throwing them at the request of his catcher. And so Kurt Suzuki shared in the blame for Tuesday night's home run parade.

"You know, the sequencing always gets kind of tough," Suzuki said. "You try to mix things up and keep guys off-guard and start them out with a changeup. The pitch before that, tried to run a fastball inside and changed it up. And sometimes you overthink yourself and kick yourself in the butt.

"That's my job to do that. Everything that happens, I take full responsibility. And when something goes wrong, I always feel like something is my fault. That's something we always go back to the drawing board and see what we can find."

The season is young, but there is a bit of a disturbing pattern developing for Strasburg. He opened Tuesday's game with four scoreless innings before falling victim to the home runs in the fifth and sixth. He opened his previous start (last week in Philadelphia) with two scoreless frames before surrendering six runs in the third and fourth innings, four of those runs scoring via a pair of homers.

How does he avoid those big innings from becoming a regular problem?

"Stay with the plan," manager Davey Martinez said. "We had a good plan. He had a good plan going into the game. I think those two pitches, he got away from it a little bit. But he's just got to continue to stay with the plan. He's got good stuff. It's just one or two little things happening, and we get into these innings."