Tigers survive Strasburg's debut to beat Nationals, 9-4

Stephen Strasburg made his major league spring training debut today. And that was nice and all for him. But I don't care, frankly.

Because Austin Jackson homered with a high-arcing shot to center field. Not off Strasburg mind you. It came in the middle of the game when the Tigers' batters made a mess out of the Nationals' pitchers. Still, it was the second or third good thing Jackson did on the day. Earlier, he turned a lazy left field single into a double by wisely taking the extra base. All I know about him is what I see in box scores and a very small sample size of a single game on television. But so far, I like what I see.

Don Kelly had another nice game himself. Besides showing he is a perfectly capable third baseman, Kelly had a nice day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

I didn't watch the whole game, but  two other things struck me. One, Magglio Ordonez's opposite field home run was a nice shot. Using the whole field like that will be pretty useful in Comerica. And Brennan Boesch's diving catch in right field was quite nice. I thought that was Clete Thomas flying through the air in the late innings!

As for the Tigers' pitching? The guys who'll break camp with the team -- Rick Porcello, Ryan Perry, Jose Valverde -- all did pretty well, limiting the Nationals to two hits and one walk.

All in all, a nice game to watch for the first one of the year on TV.

Comment of the Night

Critiquing the Nationals announcers' use of "old fastball" vs. "young fastball" in analysis, Dale S wrote:

The old fastball

doesn’t understand that "rap music" the young fastball listens to these days