Phillies

Today in NATITUDE: A Lackluster Crowd Was On Hand To See Stephen Strasburg Pitch With Icy Hot On His Balls

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 16th, 2012 · 9:51 AM EDT

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A huge turnout of 23,902 was on hand yesterday to watch Stephen Strasburg struggle through four innings… mostly because he had Hot Stuff* on his balls.

*That’s capitalized– it’s not some foreign bimbo… it’s an ointment.

We’ll let Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post fill you in:

In an unusual postgame revelation, Manager Davey Johnson volunteered just how tough. Strasburg, Johnson said, had applied the analgesic ointment Hot Stuff to loosen up, and somehow, it had covered an area that would affect a pitcher’s performance.

“I can’t really tell you what the problem was, but some Hot Stuff got misplaced,” Johnson said. “It was on his shoulder and evidently — I don’t know how it got to where it got, but it was uncomfortable, to say the least.”

 

What a pussy he is. Roger Clemens used to do this intentionally. 

Strasburg didn't want to talk about it:

Strasburg, when asked about "hot stuff": "You know, I'm going to keep that in the clubhouse."

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) May 15, 2012

 

It was only the second time in 25 career starts for Strasburg that he’s allowed more than three earned runs, and presumably the first time he’s done so with great balls of fire. 

Ouch.