Stephen Strasburg pitched in a major league game for the first time in over a year on Tuesday, but if you didn't know that, you might have thought he was pitching effectively in the major leagues this whole time. Strasburg allowed just two hits over five scoreless innings while striking out four Dodgers. But his stuff looked electric, and his location looked better than I would have expected in his first start back. You can find video of Strasburg's reaction to his start here, but we'll provide a transcript.
It was awesome. I mean it felt like such a long time since I've been able to go out there and play with these guys up here. Going out there, and not much has changed. Still 60 feet six inches.
Strasburg has always been a relatively unassuming character, so it's not surprising to see him downplay the whole significance of this. But he has been working extremely hard to get back here and must be revealed to be back on a major league mound. But how about the stuff?
It was pretty good. They were swinging the bat early, I was able to throw the ball down in the zone and get some weak contact. There's always room for improvement, curveball was kind of hit or miss, and that's to be expected. So I'm just going to try and work on that for next time.
Here is my analysis of how Strasburg pitched. the fastball looked good in terms of velocity, and I as pretty amazed with his ability to keep it down in the zone when he wanted to. The new two-seam fastball was terrifyingly good, particularly in one instance where he ran it inside against MVP Candidate Matt Kemp and forced his knees to buckle. That pitch was a called strike, at 97 mph. The curveball had good movement but needed better location. The changeup was devastating. Strasburg isn't all the way back, but it is pretty scary to think how much he could improve considering he just gave up only two hits in five innings.