DENVER — Stephen Strasburg’s strong start to the season is fast becoming a distant memory after the Washington right-hander struggled again Wednesday.
D.J. LeMahieu kept tormenting the Nationals with two hits, Gerardo Parra drove in four runs and the Colorado Rockies beat Strasburg and Washington 12-10.
Bryce Harper homered and Jayson Werth extended his on-base streak to 45 games, the longest in Nationals history and one behind Rusty Staub’s franchise record. Staub reached base in 46 straight games for the Montreal Expos spanning the 1969-70 seasons.
Strasburg (15-4) had his shortest outing of the season. After winning 15 of his first 16 starts, the right-hander has allowed 19 earned runs and 24 hits in the last 11 2/3 innings. His ERA has risen nearly a run, from 2.63 to 3.59, in his last four starts.
“I don’t need to change anything. I need to keep going, I need to keep grinding and the odds are going to be in my favor,” Strasburg said. “They just weren’t today.”
The first six batters reached against Strasburg, and Colorado sent 11 to the plate in the first and eight more in the second to build a 9-2 lead.
Koda Glover relieved Strasburg after Tony Wolters’ two-out single in the second.
“You just kind of got to put them behind you,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said of Strasburg’s last few starts. “For one you got to quit counting because if you don’t quit counting, it goes to four and five and it gets in your head. He’ll get it together.”
Wolters homered and had three hits, and Charlie Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 12 games for the Rockies.
LeMahieu singled in his first at-bat to stretch his on-base streak to 10 plate appearances, the fourth longest in club history. The streak stopped when he struck out to end Colorado’s seven-run first inning.
It was the first time Washington retired LeMahieu during this three-game series. LeMahieu was 4 for 4 on Monday and 3 for 3 with a walk Tuesday. He also walked in his final at-bat Sunday against Philadelphia.
Rockies starter Jon Gray allowed four runs and six hits in four innings and has allowed 18 earned runs over his last 11 innings.
Harper made it 9-6 in the fifth with a two-run shot that traveled 461 feet to right-center. Colorado scored three times in the bottom of the inning to make it 12-6.
“If you score 10 runs you think you’d win a ballgame, but sometimes it happens that way,” Harper said. “You’ve got a great team over there that can swing the bat. Colorado’s crazy.”
Pedro Severino had a pinch-hit homer in the seventh and Trea Turner led off the eighth with a triple and scored on Werth’s sacrifice fly.
Boone Logan (2-2) struck out Daniel Murphy and Harper to end the eighth before Scott Oberg allowed a solo home run to Chris Heisey before closing it out for his first save.
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