Well actually, Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg is not soft
Stephen Strasburg went out in Game 4 and absolutely shoved, quieting the haters (of which there are many).
One of my favorite accounts on the Twitter is @OldTakesExposed which has made a name for itself collecting the worst sports takes on the World Wide Web. Some days, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel when it comes to bad sports takes, and Wednesday was one of those days.
Hearken back a little more than 24 hours, if you will. With the rain moving in on the City of Chicago and the Cubs and Washington Nationals seeing their scheduled Game 4 pushed back a day, everyone with half an understanding of the game of baseball figured Nats ace Stephen Strasburg would replace Tanner Roark and take the ball on regular rest in a must-win game.
Well, wrong. Maybe.
Strasburg had apparently told manager Dusty Baker he would not pitch because he was still under the weather and dealing with a cold that left him wheezing after running a half mile. Except Dusty felt the need to try and cover for his pitcher and claimed he would not pitch because he had thrown a bullpen session.
No one believed it, and boy were people quick to bust out their strongest opinions about the testicular fortitude of Mr. Strasburg.
Strasburg is soft in the first place. His team is facing elimination in the playoffs, and a "cold" is going keep him from starting? Get out https://t.co/g5zfKig7e4
— Josh Russell (@Hustle_Russell3) October 11, 2017
Could wind up ugliest #Nationals postseason exit of them all. Strasburg reputation as soft carved in stone. Dusty, too, as postseason mgr.
— thom loverro (@thomloverro) October 10, 2017
Roark may go out and pitch amazing tomorrow for the Nats but after hearing that everyone except Strasburg even Max is available to pitch shows me that he is incredibly selfish and very soft!
— Matt Archie (@MattArchie10) October 11, 2017
Unless he's near death, if I'm a #Nationals fan, I'd be DONE with Stephen Strasburg. #Soft
— Chris (@CBundus31) October 11, 2017
This won’t help Strasburg shed that #soft label that he 100% deserves. https://t.co/OLl2VB4Hjz
— Matt T (@mdthompFWFB) October 11, 2017
Never called Strasburg a orchid or soft. Injuries happen. This? Yea he’s bitchmade and if they lose tomorrow he will be remembered for this
— MidzardsNow&Forever (@CWellion) October 11, 2017
Oh boy. Good job folks, you really showed him.
Strasburg does not have an official Twitter account, but he must have a burner account because around noon on Wednesday afternoon, news trickled out that he would in fact be making the start. It went quite well.
It’s not that Strasburg hadn’t already earned a bit of a reputation for being something a bit less than an Ultimate Warrior on the mound. The Nats dug his grave for him in 2012 when he was not allowed to pitch in the playoffs coming off Tommy John Surgery. He has also had his other moments though, asking out of a start because he had icy hot running down his leg, missing time with an ingrown toenail and coming undone in a start in Atlanta because his palms were too sweaty.
Wednesday’s performance against the Cubs will go down as Strasburg’s Jordan Flu Game if the Nationals are able to pull out Game 5 and then win the World Series. He threw a dominant seven innings with 12 strikeouts and will end his NLDS with zero earned runs allowed in 14 innings with 22 strikeouts. Dating back to August, he now has a 0.67 ERA in his past 10 starts, which is actually good.
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Here’s where we hit you with a little bit of well actually. Well actually, Stephen Strasburg is not soft. Well actually, no professional athlete is soft. This was an all-time great performance by the Nats right-hander, and the haters are left to scrape egg off their faces, or at least scrambling to hit the delete button of an angry tweet they were so proud of just a few hours earlier.