You’ve earned the right to smile, kid. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)Nationals 5, Pirates 2: The biggest sign of great things to come for Stephen Strasburg wasn’t the huge ovation he received from the 40,395 at Nationals Park last night after finally breaking 100 miles per hour on the radar gun — which he did several times. It wasn’t the dominating second inning, during which he struck out the side. Nor was it the multiple times he made Pittsburgh hitters look completely foolish on pitches that were so utterly filthy, yours truly felt the immediate desire to hit the confessional.
No, the most important thing to happen last night was that Jesus, The Savior, or whatever utterly ridiculous nomenclature you want to apply to the kid from California, got into trouble in the fourth. It wasn’t nerves or fatigue (skipper Jim Riggleman said that Strasburg could have “gone 195 [pitches]”). It was the fact that it was the second time around the order for several men who are paid specifically for their proclivity to hit baseballs a very long way or into crannies where defenders do not monitor. This isn’t San Diego State, Potomac, Harrisburg, or Syracuse, where the players are certainly skilled but not the cream of the crop. This is the big leagues, where even the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that hasn’t won more than half their games in a single season since 1992, can and do punish dozens of pitchers in a season. All those pitchers all might not be as talented as Strasburg, but this is what these men are paid for. To hit the ball and hit it hard.
So when Delwyn Young, hardly someone who you’d imagine would do it — cranked a homer that barely cleared the fence in the right-center power alley, Strasburg suddenly seemed, I don’t know, human.
But there he was, the next inning and the next and the next, back to throwing the ball 99 miles per hour and making the same men — including Young — look utterly foolish, over and over and over again. He made a couple mistakes. But he refocused his efforts. Shook off the dust. And got back on that hill with all the determination that he’s exhibited since April. Stephen Strasburg took all the expectation, all the hype, and all the talk and turned it on its head with a most dominating performance, including a final inning of work which was a masterwork in power pitching.
That’s why we know he’ll be successful. Because he messed up, like we all do; but he put it behind him and walked away with the win on one of the most electric nights in Washington sports history.
(We’ll have more Strasmania tomorrow. How could we not?)
