Strasburg-mania

Nationals’ celebrated rookie pitcher beats the Indians at Progressive Field

By Paul Hoynes

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

The Stephen Strasburg traveling circus and revival meeting pulled up stakes and left town Sunday afternoon. He threw hard and won going away, but he didn’t last real long.

The Indians made him throw a lot of pitches, 95 in 51/3 innings, but still lost, 9-4, to Washington to end their four-game winning streak. They did make some money, drawing 32,876 fans to Progressive Field.

It was the Indians’ second biggest gate of the year next to the April 12 sellout against Texas for the home opener. Bob DiBiasio, Indians vice president of public relations, said the lure of watching Strasburg (2-0, 2.19 ERA) make his second big-league start increased ticket sales by 15,000, including a walk-up crowd of 3,823.

For a team last in the big leagues in attendance, averaging just over 16,000 per game, that’s a nice haul. It’s too bad they can’t keep it going.

The next visiting pitcher to take the mound at Progressive Field will be Johan Santana of the Mets on Tuesday. He’s a two-time Cy Young winner, and far more accomplished than Strasburg, but he’s not new. Indians fans know Santana, but they’d didn’t know Strasburg and his 100 mph fastball until Sunday.

When Strasburg hit 99 mph on his first pitch, an “oooooh” when through the crowd.

“Strasburg showed that power arm and we were impressed by the breaking ball,” said manager Manny Acta. “That was the most impressive thing because we knew the velocity was there.”

Kerry Wood, who was Strasburg in 1998 as a rookie with the Chicago Cubs, watched him closely.

“He’s got tremendous stuff,” said Wood. “He has command of a couple off-speed pitches which is huge for a young guy with his kind of arm. It was impressive.”

The media didn’t start clinging to Wood until he struck out 20 Houston Astros in his fifth big-league start. They’ve been glued to Strasburg since the Nationals made him the top draft pick in the country in 2009.

“I’d tell him to just worry about baseball, that’s why we’re all here,” said Wood. “When I came up and got all that attention right away, it was a little overwhelming for me. ... Keeping that stuff to a minimum will probably be key for him.”

After Travis Hafner hit an 100 mph pitch over the right-field fence in the second inning to make it 1-1, there were a lot fewer triple-digit fastballs from Strasburg and a lot more 83-85 mph curves and change-ups.

Through five innings the Nationals led, 2-1, thanks to Adam Dunn’s leadoff homer in the fourth. The focus was on Strasburg, but left-hander David Huff was pitching well for the Indians, while his teammates were doing a good job with the offensive game plan.

Strasburg struck out 14 and didn’t allow a walk in his first big-league start last week against Pittsburgh. He struck out eight on Sunday, but walked five. The Indians, however, couldn’t score against him besides Hafner’s homer.

Their best chance came in the fourth when rookie Carlos Santana and Hafner drew consecutive walks. Strasburg struck out Austin Kearns and Russell Branyan to end the inning.

Washington took control with four runs in the sixth after Huff (2-8) retired the first two batters. Ivan Rodriguez hit a two-run double and Ian Desmond added a two-run triple off center fielder Trevor Crowe’s glove. Crowe said he should have taken a deeper route on the ball.

Strasburg’s biggest problem was the Progressive Field mound. The grounds crew had to come out in the fifth and sixth innings to fill in his landing spot in the front of the mound.

“I was just slipping a little bit,” said Strasburg. “I wish I would have handled it a little better. It got me into a bit of a funk.”

Strasburg is the first pitcher this season who has complained about the mound.

“The mound was great,” said Huff. “Our grounds crew does a great job with it.”

The Nationals made it 9-1 with three runs in the eighth off Tony Sipp. Two runs came on Roger Bernadina’s two-run homer. The Indians came back with three runs in the ninth on Luis Valbuena’s single and Shin-Soo Choo’s two-run single.