The long-awaited showcase has come to a close.  And yes, rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg showed it all tonight.

Strasburg displayed three top-notch pitches that baffled Pittsburgh batters through seven innings.  He brought a high 90′s, 100-mph fastball, a ridiculous boomeranging curveball, and a bottom-dropping changeup.  The combination of these pitches allowed the Nationals’ 2009 #1 draft pick to ring up 14 Pirates in his seven stanzas of work tonight.

Simply amazing.

The sole blemish in his initial Washington start came in the fourth inning.  Delwyn Young capitalized on a 90-mph changeup (that’s right folks, not a fastball…but a 90-mph changeup), lifting it into the right field seats with a runner on a base.

Did this turn of events rattle the rook?

In the sixth inning, Adam Dunn belted his eleventh homer of the season.

Not at all.  He settled back into his rhythm, giving up a total of four hits, two earned runs (both on Young’s homer), and – most impressively – surrendering no walks.  The 21-year-old K’ed the final seven Pirates that he faced.  In total, Strasburg struck out seven batters on his heater, four batters on his curveball, and another three on his changeup.

Oh, yeah…and the Nationals won the game tonight, 5-2.

Strasburg got support in the form of a two-run bomb by Adam Dunn and solo dingers from Ryan Zimmerman and Josh Willingham.  This put Strasburg is position to quailify for the victory when he exited the contest after the seventh inning.

With such pressure on the youngster, it was clear that he was able to relax and have fun.  That’s certainly a sign that the Nats have something great in the making.

The best part of it all – - we’ll all be able to tune in five days from now to see if he can do it again.