Stephen Strasburg made his highly anticipated debut for the Washington Nationals Tuesday afternoon against the Detroit Tigers. He started the game and faced mostly starters from the Tigers' roster.
Strasburg threw 27 pitches in his two innings of work, but 20 of them came in the 2nd inning, when he gave up back-to-back singles. Neither ball was hit particularly hard.
MLB Prospect Watch scouted Strasburg's outing and you can see a full scouting report on Strasburg's outing, complete with pitch locations and selection. The chart does not differentiate between 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs and does not have pitch speeds. Pitch locations are from the view behind the pitcher.
Strasburg threw only his 4-seam fastball, 2-seam fastball, and curve ball in this outing. The pitches marked in blue are the ones where he hit his location set up by the catcher (regardless of it being a ball or strike), and those marked in orange were where he missed his target. As you can see, Strasburg's control with his fastball was significantly better from the windup (10-of-13) than from the stretch (2-of-8).
He threw 6 curve balls in the outing, bouncing 3 of them in the dirt and throwing 2 for strikes. Both of the curve balls thrown for strikes froze the hitters completely, including the 3-2 bender he threw Brent Dlugach to end his afternoon.
Overall, Strasburg was as impressive as advertised in his first outing. He located his fastball well and induced ground balls (5 of the 8 batters he faced hit the ball on the ground) with his sinking 2-seam fastball.
