Stephen Strasburg Might Be Ready

The Washington Nationals gave Stephen Strasburg 22 innings in AA. He dominated. They promoted him to AAA Syracuse to give him a greater challenge, and on Friday night, the demigod made his debut. He dominated.

↵↵This was a simply dominant performance by the phenom: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K. His ground-out to fly-out ratio was 12-to-0. He threw 65 pitches, 45 for strikes. And to reiterate: the only ball to leave the infield was the weak grounder up the middle by Blanco in the fourth.

↵↵For good measure, Strasburg threw in both an RBI single and an RBI bunt, his third and fourth runners driven in in ten trips to the plate. The last Friday night home game Syracuse played drew fewer than 4000 fans. This one more than sold out the 11,071 seat Alliance Bank Stadium, and it’s safe to say the fans got what they came for.

↵For a while, it was assumed that Strasburg would serve as one of the lone highlights for Nationals fans down the stretch of another miserable season. With the Nats hanging tight in the race, however, there exists the possibility that Strasburg - who’s clearly ready - could, once promoted, ignite a charge to the playoffs. May Ryan Zimmerman enjoy to the fullest extent his final days as the face of a franchise.