The Nationals’ bullpen and an unusual managing decision by Johnson deprived Strasburg a chance at the win. Doug Slaten replaced Strasburg in the sixth inning and allowed hits to two of the three batters he faced. Johnson turned to Brad Peacock, who had joined the Nationals’ roster that afternoon. He had not wanted to use Peacock, but with a storm in the forecast, Johnson was also wary of warming him up and then not using him.
Peacock, a 24-year-old and one of the Nationals’ top starting prospects, began his major league career pitching from the stretch with two on, one out, Kemp at the plate and Strasburg’s win on the line. “Welcome to the big leagues, kid,” Johnson said.
Peacock made a nasty first pitch, a 95-mph fastball with bite on the outside corner. Kemp followed that with a groundball that ate up Ian Desmond on a high hop. Peacock allowed a walk and two more hits, and the Dodgers tied the score at 3.
The Dodgers won the game in the eighth, when Dodgers catcher Rod Barajas roped a two-run double off Nationals reliever Henry Rodriguez. Three other Nationals — left-handed reliever Atahualpa Severino, outfielder Corey Brown and infielder Stephen Lombardozzi, a Columbia native — made their major league debuts as well.
The Nationals struck out 17 times, but they also managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against Dodgers closer Javy Guerra. But Michael Morse struck out looking and Brown flied to left field.
Last June, Strasburg compared his debut to his wedding night — he remembered the first pitch, and everything else was a blur. Over the past year, his body and his mind-set have matured. After Tuesday night, he remembered everything.
“The game seemed like it was in slow motion out there,” Strasburg said. “From what it felt like in the debut last year, I kind of felt like I had been through it before. I was definitely a lot more relaxed out there.”
Tuesday night was more methodical reintroduction than the grand unveiling of his major league debut in 2010. The Nationals sold 29,092 tickets, but only enough fans to fill half the stadium braved gray, threatening skies. Strasburg displayed the same electric combination of pitches that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2009 and baseball’s most scintillating attraction last year. He showed the same greatness that made the frayed ligament in his right elbow such a painful — but, the record may now state, temporary — blow.
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