I sat down to watch the Washington Nationals—Philadelphia Phillies game early Saturday night and once again, I was impressed with what I saw out of phenom Stephen Strasburg for the first 4.1 innings.
Strasburg was rolling through the Phillies’ lineup, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out six. His fastball was touching the high 90s and he was mixing in his curve and his change to really dominate the Philly lineup.
Then the fifth inning happened.
On a 1-1 pitch to fellow rookie Domonic Brown, Strasburg threw a ball that tailed low and away to Brown, but Strasburg appeared to be hurt on the pitch. He kept flexing his arm and immediately the trainer came out to see what the issue was.
Strasburg left the game with what later was diagnosed as a strained tendon in his right forearm. Strasburg underwent an MRI on Sunday, but the results of that test are still not known.
I don’t know what the MRI will show, but if a strained tendon in his forearm is all that happened, then the Nationals are darn lucky. With Strasburg’s reaction, I thought he had blown out is elbow.
Regardless of what the MRI shows, Strasburg’s 2010 season should be over. The Nationals are going nowhere the rest of the season and there is no point in pushing Strasburg.
The Nationals have too much invested in Strasburg and they can’t be that desperate for a gate that they would threaten his career by sending him back out there.
For those who want to already want to compare him to Mark Prior—pump the breaks. Prior suffered injuries and had surgeries that prematurely ended his career. Strasburg hasn’t even landed on the DL yet.
I am not going to come close to putting Strasburg in the Prior category just yet.
As soon as the results of Strasburg’s MRI are announced, I will have an update on this post.
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