Life's a Gas for Strasburg in Unveiling

VIERA, Fla. -- The future of the Nationals made his first start in a Washington uniform Tuesday.

Before the game, Stephen Strasburg was being laughed at by his teammates.

It seems that when they tried to relieve the tension he was feeling by talking to him, Strasburg had trouble getting any words out in response.

"We were all laughing,'' fellow Washington pitcher Miguel Batista said after Strasburg's two innings of shutout baseball in his debut against Detroit. "He was sitting there, we were trying to calm him down, and he really couldn't say anything.''

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The Tigers never got the chance to laugh, at least not while Strasburg was in the game. He needed just seven pitches to get through a perfect first inning, then gave up a pair of two-out singles before shutting out the Tigers in the second inning, too.

"It was good to get through that first inning,'' Strasburg said. "After that I was able to go out and have fun.''

It should be noted that the Nationals were laughing after the game, too, even after losing 9-4. Laughing because Strasburg, the first player taken in last June's draft and perhaps the best-known baseball player never to have pitched in a big-league game, didn't let the pressure of his first start interfere with him doing his job. That's an excellent sign for the future.

Batista, Eddie Guardado and some of the other veterans have been counseling Strasburg on the intricacies of pitching in the big leagues. There's nothing intricate about throwing a fastball 100 mph -- Strasburg has done that in the past, although he topped out at 98 mph Tuesday -- but pitching isn't all about power.

"This kid has had a lot of pressure on him that other players, very good players, don't have and have never had."
-- Nationals manager Jim Riggleman Strasburg threw back-to-back changeups at one point and the curve he threw to Brent Dlugach to end the second inning froze the Tiger second baseman like an Arctic blizzard.

"This kid's got a great arm, no question about that,'' Guardado said. "But some of us have talked to him about the other side of the game. They say 90 percent of pitching is mental, and they're right. I think [Stephen] understands that better now.''

The 21-year-old's debut was almost two years in the making.

"Right after the 2008 draft, the first thing everybody said that Strasburg was going to be the No. 1 pick in 2009,'' Washington manager Jim Riggleman said. "He had to go through that pressure for a whole year. Then after the draft, he didn't sign until just a couple of minutes before the deadline.

"Then he was scouted by everybody in the Arizona Fall League. And then the buildup to today. This kid has had a lot of pressure on him that other players, very good players, don't have and have never had.''

Now, maybe, some of the pressure is off. He's faced opposing hitters from a good big-league lineup and more than held his own. Tiger slugger Miguel Cabrera, who struck out swinging in his second-inning at-bat against Strasburg, came away impressed.

"He's got good stuff -- a good arm,'' Cabrera said. "He's got a good chance for success in the big leagues. He's got a great arm, great action, great mechanics. His fastball was jumping. He's going to be good.''

And yet for all of that, Strasburg was nothing but nerves before the game. There was the brief inarticulate period that Batista talked about. And then there was his bullpen warmup when he asked pitching coach Steve McCatty what to do. McCatty said to treat this warmup as he would have any other for San Diego State or the U.S. Olympic team.

"He told me to breathe,'' Strasburg said, breaking into a slight grin when discussing the talk .

"He's a great kid, but there's a lot of pressure,'' McCatty said. "Some of it comes from [the Nationals], but a lot more of it comes from [the media]. He's got the talent, but this was his first time out. He'll get used to all this. He'll get used to all the press.

"Pitching isn't just about stuff, it's about location, and he has that, too. He loves the game. He loves being here. There's a long way to go where for him, but this was a very good start.''

Strasburg stood in the middle of the Nationals' clubhouse during the seventh and eighth inning, talking to the media for about 10 minutes. Any minor discomfort he had talking with reporters earlier in camp seems to have diminished.

What he wants to do now, he said, is to pitch and to learn. He talks about the game with McCatty, but also with Batista, Guardado and the guys who have been around the block so many times in the past.

"There's an amazing amount of knowledge in this clubhouse,'' Strasburg said. "I can learn from that. But it's also all about making quality pitches. It's about being smart with location.''

For his first time out, Strasburg seems to be ahead of the learning curve.