Strasburg strikes out five in two-inning spring debut (Nats win 8-4)

NATIONALS QUICK WRAP

Score: Nationals 8, Tigers 4

Recap: Stephen Strasburg struck out five over two innings in his first spring training start, but did give up a two-run homer to Bryan Holaday. Reliever A.J. Cole also was victimized by a blast from Holaday, who is making a bid for early Grapefruit League MVP honors (he's hitting .750 with three homers and eight RBIs so far). Ben Revere hit a two-run homer to right field for the Nationals, showing that he can occasionally flash some pop to go along with his contact and speed. Former National Jordan Zimmermann made his first spring start since sighing a five-year, $110 million free agent deal in the offseason, working into the third inning and getting a nice ovation from the crowd at Space Coast Stadium upon his exit. Scott Sizemore's second homer of the spring snapped a 4-4 tie in the sixth. Sammy Solis escaped a none-out, bases-loaded jam in the eighth and Matt Skole hit a two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning.

Need to know: Revere homers are exceedingly rare - he's hit four in 2,497 at-bats in six major league seasons. Two of them, however, came against the Nationals for the Phillies: off Rafael Soriano in 2014 (in one of the closer's epic late-season meltdowns) and off Max Scherzer last season.

On deck: Sunday, at Cardinals in Jupiter, 1:05 p.m.
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VIERA, Fla. - Stephen Strasburg rarely played second fiddle to Jordan Zimmermann during their six years together with the Nationals. But with Zimmermann now a Tiger - and making his debut this afternoon against his former club - Strasburg's first start of the spring suddenly didn't draw a lot of attention.

By the time he departed the mound after a mostly dominating performance, Strasburg made sure everyone in attendance hadn't forgotten about him.

Strasburg struck out five batters in two innings, including four of the first five Detroit hitters he faced. He did serve up a two-run homer to Bryan Holaday in the top of the second, but that was the lone significant blemish on his afternoon.

"I threw a lot of really good pitches," said Strasburg, smiling and joking through most of his session with reporters outside the home clubhouse at Space Coast Stadium. "Just one pitch, but that's to be expected. I'm just going to keep working on the selection, keep working on fine-tuning."

Strasburg displayed strong fastball and curveball command (particularly on the outside corner), striking out Jose Iglesias, Victor Martinez, J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos. He later got John Mayberry Jr. looking at a fastball before moments later leaving a first-pitch fastball up to Holaday and watching as the Tigers catcher launched it over the left field fence.

"It seems like every time, my first outing (of spring training) I give up a homer," he said with a smile. "I try not to go out there expecting it, but it's not something that's alarming at all."

Strasburg finished with 34 pitches in two innings, 22 of them strikes. As is typically the case in early March, he was focused more on specific pitches that needed work than actual results.

"I wanted to go out there and throw my off-speed," he said. "My changeup, I threw one good to Martinez and he fouled it off. I threw one good to, well, the other Martinez as well. And then kind of yanked a couple. But it's just getting your work in, get the butterflies going. The biggest thing is going in, mixing all your pitches and work on getting that feel."