Strasburg works a perfect first (and is through the second)

By Dan Kolko

Nationals

March 04, 2012, 8:18am

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VIERA, Fla. - It might be his first game action this spring, but Stephen Strasburg looked like Stephen Strasburg in his first inning of work this afternoon. Strasburg set the Astros down in order in the top of the first, retiring Jordan Schafer on a fly ball to right, getting Marwin Gonzalez on a first-pitch grounder to first base, and striking out Brian Bogusevic swinging. Strasburg tossed 14 pitches in the first inning, eight of which were for strikes. He threw mostly fastballs, but looked to throw a couple hard sliders and then appeared to retire Bogusevic on a changeup, although it's hard to tell from the press box without the benefit of radar gun readings. His strikeout of Bogusevic came after Strasburg fell behind in the count 3-0. He then fired in three straight strikes to get the Astros' right fielder swinging. Update: In the second, Strasburg allowed a one-out double to left-center off the bat of Fernando Martinez, but got out of the inning unscathed. Strasburg threw 14 more pitches in the second inning, nine for strikes. The Nationals' right-hander is on a pitch limit of 45 today. He'll throw a maximum of three innings. You can catch today's game live on MASN. Dan Kolko was named MASNsports.com's Nationals beat writer after spending the last four years covering the Baltimore Ravens for MASN and also serving as the Web site's deputy managing editor. A University of Delaware graduate originally from Silver Spring, Md., Dan grew up a die-hard baseball fan and is thrilled for the opportunity to cover the Nationals. Before joining MASN, Dan worked in production at Comcast SportsNet in Bethesda, Md., and also interned at the "George Michael Sports Machine" in Washington, D.C.