Stephen Strasburg dazzles with 14 k’s in MLB debut..
Written by The Go-To-Man Mattie T. on June 8, 2010
Major League Baseball’s top overall pick of the 2009 Draft put in a spectacular performance in his big-league debut Tuesday night, as Stephen Strasburg struck out 14 batters in 7 innings during the Washington Nationals’ 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 21-year phenom struck out the side in two of his seven innings pitched, and reached 103 mph just moments before his 12th strikeout of the game in the 7th.
His only mistake of the night was a changeup that was hammered by Delwyn Young for a 2-run homer, which gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead in the top of the 6th.
Washington fought right back to take the lead & set up Strasburg for the win, as a pair of homers by Adam Dunn & Josh Willingham gave the Nationals the lead for good.
It even surpassed the MLB debut of former Cubs ace Mark Prior, who struck out 10 batters in 6 innings on May 22nd, 2002 while also beating the Pirates.
The debut was so hyped in the Nation’s Capital that future Hall-of-Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez made sure he was activated from the 15-day disabled list in time to catch Strasburg’s debut behind the plate.
After the game before receiving three shaved cream pies, Strasburg sounded like he was ready for this moment:
“I just wanted to go out and soak up everything. It only happens once and I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. It’s hard to talk with so much shaving cream on my head. I just wanted to go out there and say I’ve had my first outing in the big leagues. I’ve had a great time.”
