In the bottom of the third, Strasburg walked to the plate for his first major league at bat. The song was "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.
He hit a slow grounder between short and third, and for a moment there it looked like he was going to beat out the throw for an infield single, his first major league hit. Alas, he's a pitcher, not a baserunner, which lead Joseph White, Jr., to comment, "After watching Strasburg job slowly to 1st on the groundout, I'm convinced he's the one who's been in the Teddy costume all this time." Touche, sir.
The score remains 1-0 heading to the top of the fourth.
Neil Walker leads off the inning with a single to right field. Strasburg will have to pitch from the stretch with no outs.
Strasburg yields another hit, this time to Lastings Milledge. This is officially the first jam of his major league career: runners on first and second with no outs. Let's see how the kid responds. Bold prediction: strikeout, double play ball, in that order.
Tailor-made 6-4-3 double play on a broken bat grounder by Garrett Jones.
Stuff happens: Delwyn Young gets on a changeup and nails a two-run homerun to right field. Pirates lead, 2-1, and Stephen Strasburg is indeed human.
Andy LaRoche pops out to Cristian Guzman and the inning comes to a close, but not without damage.
Strasburg's line thus far: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 6 K. He has thrown 56 pitches.
If you're like me and harboring some anger toward Delwyn Young for putting a minor blemish on Stasburg's debut, you'll enjoy the GIF below from the second inning, courtesy of a filthy 83 MPH breaking ball and SB Nation's Jeff Sullivan's computer skills (click to view animation):
