As HardballTalk readers and baseball fans in general, you’re all well aware of the story by now.
Selected No. 1 overall by the Nationals in last year’s first-year player draft, Stephen Strasburg has cruised through the minor league ranks with spectacular numbers at every stop. In five starts this season at Double-A Harrisburg, he posted a 1.64 ERA, a 0.86 WHIP and 27 strikeouts in 22.1 innings, earning a quick promotion to Triple-A. For the Syrcause Chiefs he then rattled off a 4-1 record, a 1.08 ERA and a 38/7 K/BB ratio in six starts.
Now Strasburg is in the big leagues, and will make his MLB debut for the Nats tonight in the nation’s capital. He has the luxury of facing a light-hitting Pirates team, but a sold out crowd of over 45,000 people in D.C. will present a kind of challenge that he has never before encountered. Will he succeed? Will he fail? Will he allow two or three runs over six innings like any run-of-the-mill major league pitcher? Stick with HBT tonight and we’ll all find out. I’m Drew Silva and I will be your guide -- your Strasburg Sacagawea.
This is the official Strastivus-Strasmas-Strasnzaa-Strassukah open thread. Happy Holidays!
7:01pm: Strasburg was given a loud standing ovation on his way from bullpen warm-ups to the dugout. First pitch is coming up in about 10 minutes, at which point the 40,000-plus fans that have filled Nationals Park will realize that they’re simply at an early-June baseball game. Right?7:04pm:
The Nats seriously shot off fireworks as Strasburg took the field. Seriously. I think there was a guy waving a big flag as well. What in the world is going on...7:06pm: Strasburg’s first pitch was clocked at 97 MPH and called a ball. Let it be written.
7:11pm: Um, wow. Strasburg just burned Pirates outfielder Lastings Milledge with a 99 MPH fastball, a knee-crippling curve and a fall-off-the-table 83 MPH changeup for a three-pitch strikeout. HE’S PERFECT THROUGH ONE!
7:12pm: As MLB Network’s Bob Costas notes, “The other team must have a starting pitcher. It’s a rule.” Thus, Jeff Karstens has taken the mound in D.C. for the Pirates.
7:14pm: Oh, and Karstens promptly gives up a solo home run to Nationals third baseman -- and former Face of the Franchise -- Ryan Zimmerman. The Nats are up 1-0 through the first inning.7:19pm: Strasburg ran a 3-0 count on Pirates slugger Garrett Jones, but battled back with three straight 97-plus MPH fastballs. Yikes.
7:22pm:
The no-hitter is dead. The perfect game is dead. Strasburg just yielded an opposite-field single to Pittsburgh third baseman Andy LaRoche, once a highly-regarded prospect and now a .247/.312/.342 hitter on a bad Pirates team. Ironic, no?7:28pm:
Strasburg struck out the side in the second inning with an array of nasty slurves, fastballs and changeups. He’s thrown 30 total pitches, 18 of which have gone for strikes. The Nats are expected to pull him right around 90.7:35pm:
As Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports notes, Strasburg threw a 90 MPH changeup in the second inning. Karstens, the Pirates’ starter, hasn’t registered a fastball in the 90s at any point tonight.7:40pm:
This is incredible. Really, just incredible. Strasburg has fanned six of his last eight batters and the Pirates look absolutely hopeless. Any major league team would. The Nationals still lead 1-0.7:44pm:
Strasburg grounded out in his first major league at-bat and looked a little sluggish chugging down the line. Let it be known that we here at HBT have spotted a weakness.7:56pm: Lastings Milledge, who played a forgettable season-plus with the Nats, is getting booed tonight in the nation’s capital. Maybe there really are baseball fans in Washington. Take that, Montreal.
8:01pm: Welp, it appears Strasburg may be human. He allowed three hits in the fourth inning, including a two-run homer to Pirates right fielder Delwyn Young, who shrugged off the hype surrounding Strasburg earlier this week:
8:14pm:
After an impressive fifth, Strasburg is up to eight strikeouts and is still regularly hitting 99 MPH on the stadium gun. He has tallied 70 pitches, though, so he will need to have an efficient sixth frame or the mass exodus at Nationals Park may begin.8:23pm: The Nats failed to score a run in the fifth and still trail the Pirates 2-1. I suppose Strasburg should start getting used to the lack of run support. Bryce Harper, after all, is still a handful of years away.
8:27pm: Strasburg has faced 20 batters and struck out half of ‘em. That’s a total of 10 Ks, if you’re keeping score at home ... and lack basic math skills.
8:28pm: OK, make that 11 Ks.
8:30pm: Strasburg has thrown 80 pitches through six innings, so he’s certainly capable of heading out for the seventh. The sold-out crowd will want it. I want it. You guys want it. Heck, Bob Costas wants it. Everybody screeeeeeeeeaaam.
8:33pm: Nats first baseman Adam Dunn just crushed a two-run homer into the massive D.C. crowd. Strasburg is now in line for the win with his club up 3-2. Is this game reading like a fairy tale, or is that just me?8:36pm:
Nats outfielder Josh Willingham has joined the party with a solo charge to deep left field. D.C. leads 4-2. With that cushion, you have to wonder if manager Jim Riggleman will call it a night for Strasburg.8:40pm: Costas just opined that Pirates reliever Evan Meek has been “anything but meek” this season. You can’t write this stuff. Wait, you can? Check that. You can, indeed, write this stuff.
8:44pm: All indications point to Strasburg coming out for the seventh inning. He was in the batter’s box, ready to hit in the sixth and Nats reliever Drew Storen was warming up at a less-than-brisk pace in the bullpen.
8:46pm: He’s out there!
8:49pm: Strasburg’s 85th pitch was clocked at 99 MPH and he just fanned the Pirates’ Garrett Jones for his 12th strikeout of the evening.
8:51pm: He struck out the side on 13 pitches in the seventh inning. That’s 14 Ks -- a new Nationals franchise record. Wow. Just wow.
8:53pm: Strasburg is done torturing the Pirates for the evening. He struck out 14 of the 24 batters he faced, and allowed only four hits and two earned runs in seven impressive innings. He really only made one major mistake, leaving a pitch over the plate that Pirates outfielder Delwyn Young launched into the stands.
The 21-year-old college and minor league phenom just became one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, at least in my eyes. Everything he t hrows is hard, and everything has tailing movement. If Strasburg pitches every night like he did this Tuesday evening in D.C., we’re going to bear witness to some truly special performances, and maybe a special career. He’s as good as advertised. Heck, he’s better than advertised. And it would appear that the good people of Washington just found themselves something to root for in the summer other than a rain storm to break the dense humidity.