"As Stephen Strasburg sat behind a microphone Tuesday night, a room full of notebooks and recorders and television cameras stretched out before him, a man whose major league debut came when Strasburg was all of 3 sat beside him, watching and listening, wondering if he would approve of what was said.

"This is just an important day for myself and my family and all the people that have helped me my entire baseball career," Strasburg said, and Iván Rodríguez nodded -- sometimes emphatically -- with almost every word. Each time Strasburg downplayed the significance -- which, in some corners, seemed intergalactic -- of his seven-inning, 14-strikeout performance that helped his major league career explode with a 5-2 victory for his Washington Nationals over the Pittsburgh Pirates, Rodríguez responded by giving a veteran's endorsement.

"This kid is great," Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez is 38 and has caught 2,321 games, more than anyone in big league history. He has won one World Series and played in another. But the game he was on the receiving end of Tuesday night -- from the first fastball for a ball to the last of Strasburg's 94 pitches, his final a strikeout -- ranks right there with any of them.

"I been catching a lot of guys, but this kid is unbelievable," Rodríguez said. "The most amazing thing is he's around the plate, he throws strikes, and he's always in the strike zone. [Normally], especially guys that young, like Stephen, they come and get behind in the count, but he didn't do that today. He just attacked the strike zone." "