Best of the Decade: Stephen Strasburg's electrifying debut

As the Nationals celebrate 10 seasons in Washington, D.C., we reflect on some of the best moments since the franchise moved to the nation's capital. Each Wednesday through mid-August, check out Nationals Pastime for a remembrance of one of the watershed moments in Nationals history.

When Stephen Strasburg took the mound for the first time in a Nationals uniform on June 8, 2010, Sports Illustrated called it "the most hyped pitching performance the game has ever seen." On a Tuesday night, two months into the season, over 200-plus media members - or as many as for a World Series - filled the press box at Nationals Park, not to watch the last place home team, but rather to see arguably baseball's best pitching prospect in the game's storied history.

In a rare instance, especially in this newer world of blown up social media, Strasburg somehow outperformed the hype. 40,315 fans walked through the gates on South Capitol Street wishing each other "Merry Strasmas" in anticipation of 21-year-old's debut just 364 days after the Nationals made him the No. 1 overall selection in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft.

The Nationals inked the phenom to a record-breaking four-year $15.1 million contract and then hurried him off to the minors, where ESPN actually broke into programming to broadcast portions of his debut at Double-A Harrisburg. The Nats elevated Strasburg to the majors after 11 dominating starts on the farm, which produced a 1.30 ERA and 65 strikeouts over 55 1/3 innings.

At 7:06 p.m., Strasburg fired his first big league pitch, a 97 mph heater inside for a ball. The crowd groaned, but there wasn't much more disappointment to follow. The Pirates' Andrew McCutchen recorded the first out on a soft liner to short. Two batters later, Lastings Milledge became Strasburg's first strikeout victim on a filthy curveball.

"They didn't really talk to me about a game plan or how to attack certain hitters," Strasburg said to reporters. "They just told me to go out there and enjoy it."

Ryan Zimmerman, who presented Strasburg with his first Nationals jersey at his introductory press conference months before, backed the youngster with a solo homer in the bottom of the frame. Then Strasburg went back to work, fanning the side in the second.

Strasburg produced two more whiffs in the fourth before he made his first mistake of his young career on a changeup that Delwyn Young golfed over the right field wall for a two-run homer to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the fifth. The crowd was shocked.

However, Strasburg was unfazed. He kept pounding the zone with blazing fastballs, pumping a 101 mph heater past Neil Walker in the sixth for his 10th strikeout of the night.

In the bottom of the frame, slugger Adam Dunn gave the Nationals and Strasburg the lead on a two-run homer, and then Josh Willingham followed with a solo shot.

Powered with a lead, Strasburg jogged to the mound for the seventh, electrifying the crowd by striking out the final three Pirates he faced. Andy LaRoche was the final casualty, waving at a rising 95 mph fastball on Strasburg's 94th pitch of the evening.

"It's never easy to hit 97 to 100 mph," said LaRoche. "Especially when he's got a curveball like that. It's the combination of the two. You can say, 'All right, here comes 100 right down the middle,' or 'Here comes the curveball,' and it's still tough to hit."

The crowd that stood most of the night jumped back on their feet as the PA announcer reported during the seventh-inning stretch that Strasburg had set a Nationals record with 14 strikeouts, one shy of the all-time mark for a major league debut. Strasburg jumped back to the top of the dugout steps saluting the screaming home fans. He became the first pitcher ever to strikeout at least 11 batters without issuing a walk in his big league debut. He also allowed only four hits in claiming his first major league win.

"It's something I've never seen before," Zimmerman said to reporters. "Usually you see it in basketball, in the NBA, stuff like that. Never in baseball. It's his game and a lot of people came out to watch him. He didn't really let them down."

Strasburg, who received standing ovations from the time he stepped on the field for his pregame warmup to his pie-in-the-face postgame interview, had a perfect analogy to sum of the excitement of the evening.

"The only thing I really remember is the first pitch -- ball inside -- everything else is just such a blur," Strasburg said. "At one point, I lost track of how many innings I threw. I was like, 'You know what? I'm just going to go out there and have fun.' It's amazing.

"It's kind of like when you get married and everything, you kind of go into it wanting to remember everything -- and once it's done, you can't remember a single thing."

Strasburg's debut will always be remembered as a signature night in the storied sports history of the nation's capital.

* Miss any of the memorable moments we're highlighting from Nationals history? Here's the list to date:

No. 10: 10-game winning streaks in 2005, 2014
No. 9: Mr. Walk-Off started it all on Father's Day 2006
No. 8: Nationals return to the postseason in 2014
No. 7: Zimmerman's walk-off welcomes Nats to new home
No. 6: Zimmermann's no-hitter to end 2014 regular season
No. 5: Nationals draft Bryce Harper
No. 4: Nationals clinch first playoff birth, win NL East in 2012
No. 3: Baseball finally returns to D.C.