Whether you listened to the game on the radio, read the Strasburg live blog from the Washington Post, or watched the taped delay game on MASN (or did all three), two things were abundantly clear with Stephen Strasburg’s start. One he didn’t have his best stuff last night, a lot of pitches missed the zone, and he faced a number of 2-0 counts. The second thing that was clear was Strasburg’s worst stuff of this season was still good enough to completely shutdown the Rochester Red Wings lineup.

Strasburg’s line for the night was 6.1 innings pitched, with 9 strikeouts against 3 hits and 2 walks. Despite the Red Wings getting some solid contact and a few hits, they weren’t able to really get to Strasburg. Even without his best stuff, Strasburg was able to keep Rochester off the score board, which he has done in all three AAA games he has pitched.

Strasburg actually hurt some of his AAA stats with last night’s game as batters are now hitting .068 against him, up from .027. And now has 4 walks in 18.1 innings pitched in AAA. In all seriousness though, Strasburg has been nothing short of amazing, his 9 strikeouts last night give him a 22-4 strikeout to walk ratio in AAA, and in over two full games worth of batters he hasn’t allowed a single one to cross the plate. Strasburg’s AAA line stands at 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA, and his complete minor league numbers are just as impressive. He is 6-1 with a 0.89 ERA and a .123 batting average against. And in 40.1 innings he has allowed just 17 hits and 10 walks, while striking out 49 batters.

While Strasburg might not be able to put up those kind of numbers without his best stuff in the Majors, it is nice to see that he can dominate and make adjustments even when is game is a little off. If everything goes right, Strasburg should be up in the majors within 2 weeks, and if games like last night are any indication he has been well worth the wait for Nationals fans.