Posted by Geoff Young on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 4:15 pm

Got my third look at SDSU right-hander Stephen Strasburg Friday afternoon. He shut down UC Davis, as the Aztecs cruised to a 14-0 victory at Petco Park. For Strasburg, it was business as usual, but without all the strikeouts; presumably he was trying to be less fascist.

The scoreboard had his fastball at 96-99 mph through the first four innings. Another pitch (slider?) came in around 89 mph, while a third (change?) registered at 80-82 mph.

Strasburg had a little trouble locating his secondary pitches early but soon found his groove. One strange aspect of this start was his inning-by-inning pitch total:

• 1st: 22
• 2nd: 7
• 3rd: 12
• 4th: 27
• 5th: 6
• 6th: 19

The Aztecs erupted for five runs in the fifth. That and the fact that UCD’s starter worked like a snail on Valium kept Strasburg on the bench for a long time. When he returned, his velocity slipped — his fastball was down to 93-97 mph.

Must be nice.

I also have to mention Strasburg’s catcher, Erik Castro, who had a terrific game. I’ve been tempted to write about him in this space before but shied away because I figured most folks only want to hear about The Hype.

Castro has made hard contact just about every time I’ve seen him bat this year. On Friday, he singled, hit a screaming liner that found the left fielder, and homered twice.

Both of Castro’s home runs were no-doubters. The second landed in the beach area beyond the fence in right-center. Yeah, it was with an aluminum bat, but nobody hits balls out to that part of Petco.

Keep an eye on Castro. Catchers with left-handed power don’t grow on trees.

And Strasburg. Duh…

Previous Strasburg articles:

• Strasburg Quashes Rebel Attack (March 14, 2009)
• Second Look at Strasburg (March 21, 2009)