VIDEO: Stephen Strasburg's First Strikeout During Rehab Start

Stephen Strasburg retired five batters in his first rehab start on Sunday afternoon, and four of those hitters were retired via a strikeout. Here's video of the first of those four batters going down. As you can see, Strasburg quickly gets ahead in the count, then unleashes a nasty curveball to get the hitter to bite on a ball out of the strike zone.

It wasn't all roses for Strasburg on the scoreboard, as he surrendered a home run and two other hits. But it was all roses otherwise. Strasburg threw almost all strikes (25 out of 31), looked downright nasty at times and said he felt stronger than even he expected while out there. Nationals fans excited to see Strasburg pitch in September have to be pleased. Also, anyone concerned with Strasburg's future should take comfort knowing that Strasburg has hit every benchmark thus far on the road to recovery.

(Video via Nats Enquirer)