Stephen Strasburg took to the mound Tuesday night for the first time as a Washington National since August 21st of 2010 and performed as if he had not missed a day since.
Strasburg 23, was originally scheduled to pitch only 4 innings or 60 pitches depending on which came first but after cruising through 4 innings well below the 60 pitch count limit he was allowed to return for the 5th. In total he threw 56 pitches, 40 for strikes and faced only 17 batters over 5 innings of shutout baseball.
His fastball consistently registered in the upper 90s topping out at 99mph and his changeup was just about as close to unhittable as it gets. He struck out four, walked none and left the game with a 3-0 lead.
He even chipped in with his bat laying down a sacrifice bunt in the second that after a throwing error from pitcher Ted Lilly allowed him to reach first safely and drove home Wilson Ramos from second base. Strasburg would go on to eventually score later in the inning on a groundout from Jayson Werth giving Strasburg his first run as a major leaguer and the Nats a 3-0 lead.
Despite the Dodgers managing to pull off a come from behind victory by scoring 7 runs off the Nats bullpen most of the post game discussion still centered around Stephen Strasburg.
When asked about his outing Strasburg said “I think from where it felt like in the debut last year, I felt like I kind have been through it before. So I was definitely a lot more relaxed out there. I was trying to execute pitches and get guys out.”
To me he definitely did seem more relaxed and to an extent even a little more mature in his approach to the game. From what he has shown in his minor league rehabs and then again last night it appears as if he is actually learning to pitch more instead of just dialing it up to 100 every time and trying to blow past hitters.
Of this new approach he said “I think I’ve come to the realization that I don’t need to try to throw 100 every time to get guys out”.
Which could be good news for Nats fans because by shaving just a mile or two off his average speed on his fastball it could potentially decrease his risk of injury. Plus on top of that by him working on his command and learning to be able to do things like work inside-outside and climb the ladder it will make him a more effective and efficient pitcher.
Of his outing Nationals manager Davey Johnson said “He looked totally relaxed, in control. He had all his pitches working. He made it look easy. He had a real low pitch count. He looked strong in the end.”
Johnson was not the only one impressed even the Dodgers players even got involved in the praising of Strasburg with Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier saying “[Strasburg] definitely lives up to the hype. He has great stuff. He commands all his pitches and hits his spots. When you hit spots with the stuff he has, it [makes] it tough. You can’t miss your pitch. If you do, you’ll find yourself on the bench real quick.”
An the Dodgers starting pitcher for the evening Ted Lilly jokingly said of Strasburg “He’s someone that the Nationals should probably trade to us if they knew what was best for us,”
And to that I say no thanks we are happy with him right where he is and if the Nats staff wasn’t already before Tuesdays performance I’m pretty sure they are now.