Nationals' Strasburg leaves game vs. Reds early

Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg left Friday night's game against the Reds in the second inning with tightness in his neck.

"It's pretty stiff. I don't know why," Strasburg said after the Reds' 5-2 victory over the Nationals. "It just felt fine the first inning and once I sat down in the second, I felt it tighten up a little bit. So I threw some hot stuff on it and it just progressed. It's hard for me to turn my head to the left and it was something where I didn't think I could throw out of the corner of my eye and be effective. I just didn't want to push it too much."

Strasburg threw just 16 pitches before leaving the game. While he has dealt with shoulder issues this season, he said this was a new injury. Nationals manager Matt Williams said it was diagnosed as "tightness" in the left trapezius muscle.

"We don't know at this point, we'll have to see how he is (Saturday) and evaluate," Williams said. "It's the other side, so we'll see what he shows up with (Saturday)."

Strasburg gave up a solo homer to Joey Votto in the first inning, but said he didn't feel any pain or hints that something was wrong during that inning. His neck started bothering him after he sat down. After giving up a leadoff walk to Reds catcher Brayan Pena in the second, Williams, pitching coach Steve McCatty and head athletic trainer Lee Kuntz went to the mound to check on him and he left the game.

Right-hander Taylor Jordan took over for Strasburg with one on and no outs. Jordan went on to give up three runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings.

Jordan said he was caught off guard when he was called into action, and was actually in the bathroom when the call came that he was needed to replace Strasburg. He gave up a single to Reds second baseman Skip Schumaker in the second, but got out of the inning unscathed.

Jordan gave up a hit in each of the next three innings, but didn't give up a run until the sixth. The Reds took the lead on a walk, a double, a sacrifice fly and a blooper from Billy Hamilton, which chased Jordan from the game.

"That blooper over second base, it wasn't a bad pitch, I just got unlucky right there," Jordan said.

Jordan was called up by the Nationals recently to serve as a long reliever in the bullpen. He hadn't pitched in the big leagues this season, but was 1-2 with a 2.14 ERA in seven Triple-A starts.

Strasburg has been nagged by the shoulder issue, but was making his 10th start of the season. He left his May 5 start against the Diamondbacks after three innings. He has pitched four or more innings in just three of his last four outings.

"I'm trying to go out there and work through it and help this team win," Strasburg said. "It's just something I have to pull through and ride it out and know it's going to get better eventually."