On June 8, 2010, Stephen Strasburg made his much-hyped debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates On that night, the rookie looked dominate as he would lead his team to a 5-2 win over the Pirates while striking out 14 batters. The only blemish on his night was the two-run home run that Delwyn Young would hit off of him. Fast forward 23 months, and the Pirates would get their second look at the young superstar. Although he was slightly less impressive this go around, he still managed to strike out 13 batters as he led the Nationals to a 4-2 win over the Pirates in the series finale.
After Andrew McCutchen would strike out in the bottom of the first, Strasburg would go on to strike out the next six batters he faced, coming just three shy of the major league record of 10 set by Tom Seaver. His two appearances against the Pirates have given Strasburg his two highest single game strikeouts performances of his young career.
“The arm is fresh and legit with good composure,” Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said of Strasburg. “It’s a good arm with a kid with a head to work with it. The progress he’s made in a short period of time at this level is something.
In that fourth inning however, the Pirates would strike against the hard-throwing right-hander from San Diego State, as singles by McCutchen and Walker would plate two runs to give the Pirates the early 2-0 lead.
On the mound for the Pirates was Kevin Correia. Correia, who has struggled his past two outings, looked good early on for the Pirates. Going up against a top pitcher in the game isn’t anything new for Correia as he faced Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers in the Pirates fourth game of the season.
“I’m pretty much facing their lineup and with him, you know you have to pitch a pretty good game to get the win,” Correia said.
It wasn’t until the sixth inning that Correia would run into trouble. After a solo home run by Roger Bernadina pulled the Nats within one, former Pirate Adam LaRoche would hit his sixth home run of the season following a Ryan Zimmerman walk to put the Nationals up 3-2.
“Well a 3-1 count, he didn’t want to walk Bernadina and he just missed with a fastball out over the plate and the guy hit it out to the biggest part of the ballpark,” Hurdle said. “A 0-1 cutter to LaRoche just spun and stayed in one spot. Still at this level, you make mistakes.”
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Strasburg’s last, the Pirates 3-4-5 hitters were able to draw back-to-back-to-back walks against the flamethrower. With the bases juiced and two outs, Strasburg would pitch himself out of the jam by striking out Garrett Jones and ending the threat.
Rick Ankiel would add a solo home run in the ninth inning, the teams third of the game, to give them a two-run lead.
For the Pirates, taking two-of-three from the NL East leader makes for a positive series, but McCutchen wishes they could have taken the series.
“Two out of three is good,” McCutchen said. “Never be satisfied with that. It was good we were able to get the first two, but I wish we could have gotten the sweep. Now we just have to show up and get ready for Houston.”
The Pirates will jump into the weekend against the Houston Astros to finish the three series home stand. James McDonald (2-1, 2.70 ERA) will take the mound for the Pirates (14-17) as the Astros (14-17) will send Bud Norris to the hill (2-1, 4.58 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET.
Photo credits: AP Photo
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