27 Pitches of Hope

So 27 pitches and I'm off my rocker all ready. Stephen Strasburg made his much awaited debut in spring training yesterday and I could not be happier. Two scoreless innings in spring training is not the stuff of stars but for Nationals this might have been the two must important innings in the history of the franchise. Strasburg threw 15 of his 27 pitches for strikes and allowed two hits, successive two-out singles by Don Kelly and Alex Avila in the second. But the right-hander finished off Brent Dlugach with a bending, 81 mph breaking ball for an inning-ending strikeout.

Strasburg gives us hope and with a team that has had back to back 100 loss season. He makes watching a spring training game on a nice March day appointment TV. He does one thing that Nick Johnson could never do give National fans a sense of excitement.

The thing that was weird was about the game yesterday was the guy pitching for the Tigers, Rick Porcello. Porcello is what I want Strasburg to be and what he could be. If Strasburg turned out to be as good as the former Seton Hall Prep star, I would be through the moon.