I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I just wanted to hear the guy’s head explode that always reminds everyone, “It was only one game! It was only one game!” when a young player does well in his first career appearance.
And actually, Strasburg did more than “well.”
In his major league debut last night against the Pirates, Stephen Strasburg struck out a franchise record 14 batters over seven innings to pick up his first career victory. His only blemish came in the fourth inning when Delwyn Young took him deep with a two-run dinger to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Thanks to Adam Dunn’s two-run dinger in the sixth, the Nationals were able to retake the lead at 3-2, before adding two more runs in the eighth to give them a 5-2 victory.
Getting back to Strasburg, perhaps the most impressive stat from his debut (besides the 14 Ks, of course) is the fact that he didn’t walk anybody. That’s impressive considering he’s a 21-year-old kid pitching in a packed house for a franchise that has lofty expectations of him. The amount of control he exhibited was also impressive, as he mowed down the Pirates for seven innings.
Granted, this wasn’t a very dominant lineup he was facing, but so what? He was brilliant and he gave fans a lot to cheer about in his first time out. Who knows where he goes from here, but one thing is for sure: he’s off to a fantastic start.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
