STRASBURG TAKES NATIONAL STAGE

About an hour before making his Spring Training debut against the Tigers on Tuesday afternoon, Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg was getting ready to warm up in the bullpen when pitching coach Steve McCatty realized that Strasburg was nervous. There had been a lot of hype before this game because Strasburg was the 2009 Golden Spikes Award winner, the No. 1 overall pick in the '09 First-Year Player Draft and he signed a four-year, $15.1 million contract with Washington. McCatty wanted to make sure Strasburg didn't put extra pressure on himself because of all the hype he had received in the past year. "When he came out to the bullpen, we were kind of talking when he said, 'How should I go about warming up?'" Mcatty recalled. "I said, 'What you normally do. Do all this and remember to breathe.' He did it and got on the mound. [Before he went on the mound], I said, 'Are you ready?' He said, 'I'm ready to go right now.' So he had been champing at the bit for a little while." Strasburg went on the mound and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out two batters in the Nats' 9-4 loss to the Tigers. In the first inning, Strasburg retired the Tigers in order. He was mixing in his four-seam and two-seam fastballs. His pitches were clocked no lower than 96 mph. In the second inning, Strasburg faced the toughest part of the order. He threw two 81-mph curveballs to Miguel Cabrera before striking out the slugger on a 98-mph fastball. The next hitter, Carlos Guillen, grounded out to third baseman Ryan Zimmerman on a 97-mph fastball. After giving up consecutive singles to Don Kelly and Alex Avila, Strasburg regrouped and struck out Brent Dlugach looking on a 3-2 81-mph curveball. Strasburg threw 27 pitches, 15 for strikes. "I thought it was executed well enough to get him out," Strasburg said about the strikeout to Dlugach. "I felt it was down in the zone, and if he swung, hopefully he would have grounded out. I wasn't going to throw a hanger up there and I hoped that he was sitting on a fastball. I was going to throw [the curveball]. If it's a strike, it's a strike. If not, it's down in the zone and hopefully he swings." Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner attended Strasburg's outing, and the first thing he thought about was Strasburg's future with the club. "It was a taste of things to come," Lerner said. "That's the best way to describe it. It will be exciting to watch him grow, mature, learn the game and become a pro. In the next few years as he gets starts under his belt, it will be an amazing transformation."