Stephen Strasburg Set for 4th Rehab Appearance
By Editorial Staff
Stephen Strasburg takes the hill tonight for the Washington Nationals’ Single-A affiliate, the Hagerstown Suns, in his 4th Minor League rehab appearance. During the game, his 3rd with the Suns, Strasburg will be limited to 65 pitches or 4 innings.
Strasburg is hoping to rebound from his most recent outing last Wednesday in which he was hammered for 5 runs on 4 hits in only 1.2 innings. Strasburg labored through the start, allowing 3 earned runs and throwing 25 pitches before he was able to retire his first batter.
Many were caught off guard by the ugly effort, as Strasburg had breezed through his first two rehab appearances. It took him only 33 pitches, 26 of which were strikes, to complete 3 innings during his second start.
Washington is hoping Strasburg can get back to that level of production during game 4. If all goes well tonight, the 23 year old would be on track for another start August 27th.
It would be after his 5th start that the Nationals would consider activating Strasburg to replace Jordan Zimmermann, who is reaching his team enforced innings limit, in their rotation.
It’s to be determined if the outing has the Nationals’ rethinking their original plan for Strasburg to return early in September, but Wednesday’s struggles haven’t seemed to damage the phenom’s confidence one bit.
"“Here it is, I’m not even a year out, and my velocity is pretty much back to where it was,” Strasburg said. “They told me the whole time, ‘You’re probably not going to see the kind of velocity you had until 18 months [after surgery].’ And I think [the reason it is back is] because I worked my butt off this whole time.”"
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