Oct 4, 2014 3 min read

WASHINGTON – Stephen Strasburg had two years of pent-up playoff energy to unleash, and he came out hot.

The radar gun showed mostly 97s and 98s in the first inning of his postseason debut. There was even a 99. His fastball had lost a little bit of sizzle this season, but this was more like the rookie who dazzled the majors in 2010.

Only, he didn’t dazzle.

The San Francisco Giants appeared to have a game plan for the Washington Nationals ace: hit him up the middle.

All eight hits against the big right-hander were singles and six went to center field, usually bounding innocently between a converging second baseman and shortstop.

The Nationals needed something close to perfection from Strasburg because his San Diego pal Jake Peavy was spinning a masterpiece for the Giants. Instead, Strasburg was flawed just enough in Friday’s 3-2 loss in the opener of the best-of-five NL Division Series.

Strasburg could claim that he lost because he didn’t get any support, from both the Nationals’ bats and gloves.

His final line looked more than fine: five innings, eight hits, two runs (one unearned because of a passed ball), one walk and two strikeouts. He threw 58 of his 89 pitches for strikes and was pulled after giving up back-to-back hits – yep, both to center – to lead off the sixth.

The Nationals managed only two hits against Peavy, an infield single by Bryce Harper to open the fifth and a pinch-hit double from Nate Shierholtz to start the sixth. Two batters couldn’t advance Shierholtz, but Jayson Werth’s leadoff walk prompted manager Bruce Bochy to go to the bullpen.

Adam LaRoche drew a walk in a lefty-lefty matchup against Javier Lopez, but Ian Desmond struck out swinging against rookie Hunter Strickland.

Harper got the Nationals on the board with an upper-deck home run off Strickland to lead off the seventh, then Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a shot to the home bullpen two batters later.

Orioles 7, Tigers 6: Down by three runs in the eighth inning, the Baltimore Orioles had every reason to believe they could rally against the Tigers.

Not only because the Orioles are capable of scoring in bunches, but more importantly, they were going up against Detroit’s leaky bullpen.

Delmon Young drove in three runs with a pinch-hit double, and Baltimore used a four-run eighth to pull out a 7-6 victory Friday for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five AL Division Series.

Baltimore will try for a sweep in Game 3 Sunday at Detroit, when Miguel Gonzalez starts against the Tigers’ third straight Cy Young winner, David Price.