Swing and a mist: Anthony Rizzo perfectly describes what it's like to hit against Stephen Strasburg

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Anthony Rizzo's been the king of money quotes so far this postseason.

The face of the franchise can't get no respect, but he certainly has some for Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg.

The Washington co-ace absolutely shut down Rizzo and the Cubs offense in Game 4 Wednesday, striking out 12 batters in 7 shutout frames on a windy, wet, frigid night at Wrigley Field.

That ran Strasburg's 2017 NLDS totals to 22 strikeouts in 14 innings, allowing six hits with nary an earned run (both runs in Game 1 were unearned). He also became the third pitcher ever to rack up multiple 10-K appearances in the same Division Series:

That led to an epic response from Rizzo, when a reporter asked this:

"How hard is it to hit Strasburg's change when it's working like that?"

Rizzo paused for a second, collecting his thoughts.

"Probably like you going over to Sluggers and trying to hit," Rizzo smirked. "He throws that fastball and it rises and then that changeup just falls off the planet. It's basically anybody who goes to a batting cage and doesn't know how to hit, that's what it feels like."

Mic. Drop.

Here's how good Strasburg was Wednesday night (courtesy of Baseball Savant):

He generated 22 swings and misses on 106 pitches. Of those, 15 swings and misses came on the 32 changeups he threw.

Strasburg averaged 95.4 mph with his four-seam fastball on the evening, racking up 13 called strikes with that pitch, forcing the Cubs to be aggressive on it.

By comparison, his changeup was coming in at 88.6 mph on average and like Rizzo said, fell off the face of the Earth.

So basically this was Strasburg on a night where gametime temperatures never climbed above 60 degrees and the wind was howling in on a consistent basis:

In the span of just a couple hours, Strasburg went from being called "soft" and having his manhood questioned by Nationals fans in DC to entering the conversation as another Mr. October. 

Strasburg may only have a 1-2 record in his three career postseason starts, but he's surrendered just one earned run in 19 innings (0.47 ERA) with 24 strikeouts and a 0.95 WHIP.

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