- Neil Walker rips a Strasburg curve into right for a single. Once again, a hit, and once again, not a sweet spot hit. What we’ve established is that Stephen Strasburg’s curveball will not have a career .000 batting average against. That said, .001 is not out of the question. Who is Neil Walker? You are spoiling this for everyone.
- And another well-hit single as Milledge drills a fastball at the belt the other way. Strasburg has dipped down into the 95-96 range. Not a bad sign; this is something we expected. There’s nothing wrong with facing a little adversity. Now we see how he responds against a power bat in Garrett Jones.
- And he responds by inducing a full count broken-bat double play. Still, some cracks begin to show - five of Strasburg’s pitches were out of the zone, including the last. A more disciplined hitter might walk and load the bases. Of course, Strasburg deserves some degree of credit for having enough deception and tail on his fastball to get Jones to chase. Delwyn Young tags Strasburg for a two-run homer that gets a row into the right-center seats. However, while the Nats have fallen behind, I wouldn’t be alarmed - that was more good hitting than bad pitching. Perhaps I should’ve given more credit to the Pirates instead of dumping on them at every last opportunity. Strasburg threw Young a low, sinking change, and Young was out in front of it, but he’s strong enough to get extended, and he was able to put a charge in it. Tim Lincecum has given up 38 dingers in his big league career. Sometimes a good pitcher makes a bad pitch, and it gets hit. Other times a good pitcher makes a good pitch, and it gets hit anyway.
- It’ll be interesting to see how the crowd responds after that homer shatters the he’s-never-going-to-allow-a-run mystique. Given how magnificent Strasburg looked early on, the two runs are almost disappointing, which isn’t fair. I’m guessing it’ll only take one more swinging strikeout for everyone to get energized again. This isn’t about this game. This is about the Nationals’ future, and everyone can plainly see how exciting he’s going to be for a long long time.
Stephen Strasburg Shows Human Side And Has Some Struggles In The Fourth
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