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Stephen Strasburg lived up to the hype.  As impossible as that may seem, the Washington Nationals' phenom absolutely dominated in his first major-league start last night in front of 40,000+ fans, including yours truly.  As mentioned in an earlier post, friend Bob Shapiro invited me to join him for the coronation of baseball's newest royalty, and we sat behind home plate in the club section seats.  That view allowed us to see the break on his phenomenal curve ball, which isn't even his best pitch.  His fast ball, which hit 100 MPH, probably is, but he's also got a 96 MPH sinkerball, and a hellacious changeup that had the Pirates missing all night.  All told, Strasburg racked up 14 strikeouts in his seven-inning debut, a new Nats record (not saying much), and the first pitcher to do that since J.R. Richard was a rookie  (that's saying a lot).  The fans were hanging on every pitch and wishing each other a Merry Strasmas throughout the night, as Strasburg picked up the 5-2 win.

What's this got to do with the White Sox?  Not much really, but that's the point.  The Sox have a worse record and are far less exciting than the Nats.  And the Nats lost over 100 games each of the last two years.

I tried not to watch the scoreboard to see how the Sox were doing because I didn't want to be disappointed on a night that was about hope.  But I couldn't help myself.  I was pumped when the Sox jumped to a 2-0 lead on Mark Kotsay's homer (thanks to Bob for looking that up on his I-Phone during the game).  Fortunately, the Nats game was over before the Sox could blow that lead.  Gavin Floyd pitched well for the first time in forever -- 6.0 IP, 1 R, 6 H, 2 BB, 8 K -- but Matt Thornton wasted Floyd's performance.  Thornton, who's been struggling of late, gave up five runs in just one-third of an inning, a real ERA-buster.  Scott Linebrink added to the misery by giving up a run in 1.2 innings.  And the offense had nothing to offer to counter the Tigers' attack.  The Sox don't win when they score fewer than four runs, and last night was no exception to the rule.

The Good Guys are 9.5 games behind the Twins and going nowhere.  It's going to be a real test of my loyalty when the Sox are here and face Strasburg -- looks like it will be June 18 -- since  I've never rooted against them in my life.  Hmmm.  Go Sox or Go Strasburg?