Stephen Strasburg had a rough day on the mound for the Washington Nationals Tuesday. He went four innings, allowed seven hits and four earned runs in a 6-1 loss to the San Diego Padres. It was the second-shortest outing of his career.
After the game, manager Davey Johnson shared some, well, interesting knowledge that may have factored into Strasburg's struggles:
An unusual postgame revelation: Davey volunteered that Strasburg got "hot stuff" in "the wrong place" and "I don't know how it got there." — Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) May 15, 2012
The insinuation from Davey: Somebody put something like Icy-Hot on Strasburg in a place it shouldn't have been before game. — Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) May 15, 2012
Ouch.
Well, the first question is how did the ointment -- called "Hot Stuff" -- get onto Strasburg's nether regions? Was it a teammate in the clubhouse with the ointment? Doesn't look like it:
Sports
Asking around, there's no way it was a prank on Strasburg. No one in there is that dumb. Strasburg seemed miffed Davey brought it up. — Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) May 15, 2012
Well, if it wasn't a teammate, then perhaps it was the heavy rain? Strasburg may have used the lotion to prepare for his start and the wet conditions caused it to slide down further than intended.
Either way, I will give credit to Strasburg for having the testicular fortitude to play through that pain. That's just nuts. I wouldn't blame him if he was testes after the game.
Case closed.
Adam Vingan is co-founder and editor of Kings Of Leonsis, a Caps-centric blog. Follow him on Twitter @Adam_KOL and e-mail your story ideas to adamvingan (at) gmail.com.
