Third times a charm...

Sunday May 2nd. it will be the third home start for Stephen Strasburg, the most taalked about player to ever set foot on City Island. Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to see some of the best talent in baseball take he field here. Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Albert Belle, Jeff Bagwell, Scott Rolen, Ryan Howard, Deion Sanders, Omar Vizquel, Vladimir Guerrero, Ryan Zimmerman, the list is endless. But nobody has generated more hype than Strasburg. And rightfully so from what I've seen. He has a live arm. Is he ready for prime time. I don't think so. He's had a pretty easy go of it so far, breezing through all of his starts, with 3-0 record and a ridiculously low ERA. I thought he probably needed to get roughed up a bit, so he could learn to deal with a little adversity. The minors is the best place to do that. Granted, the spotlight here is still burning bright, but nothing like it does in the Bigs. So if your going to get kicked around a bit, this is the place to do it. And, as it turned out, today was the day. Stephen never really seemed to get in the groove. Maybe it was the delay. If memory serves, there was about a 30 minute delay, due to a passing rain shower. Every time he has pitched at home it seems that rain has been in the equation. (see April 16th entry) Maybe it was lack of support. The Sens didn't hit much, only 4 hits, and the defense was a little porous. The Curve on the other hand, only had 6 hits, but made the most of of them, plating 6. The Sens did get on the board 1st in the bottom of the first grabbing a 1-0 lead, but the Curve came right back in the top of the 2nd, pushing across 4 runs. That seemed to rattle Strasburg a little and he never did quite recover. He didn't pitch badly, throwing the gas, and settled a bit after that, but he hit his pitch count in the 5th inning and was lifted. The speculation in the crew area began at that point. Has he pitched his last game in Harrisburg? We'd been hearing rumors to that effect all week, and the early hook seemed to reinforce that belief. But after the game, which the Sens lost 6-1, Strasburg appeared, signed some autographs and went on his way, as he usually did. No extra bags or anything like that. So, with a rough start under his belt, would he hang around for 1 more. I guess we'll see. The only other entertaining thing to report was a lively exchange between manager Randy Knorr and the 1st base umpire after a questionable call at first. randy went over to calmly discuss the call and these things often do, go a little heated. Knorr was asked to vacate the premises after kicking dirt in the direction of the umpire's shoes. Unfortunately, it was the highlight of the day. At this point, I have nothing else to report. Once I get a little more caught up, I promise to make entries on a more timely basis, so I can remember all the juicy stuff. I may not write it all down, or I may paraphrase a bit, but it will be current. So until then, later.