You can usually tell in the first inning which Max Scherzer you were going to see, and Scherzer looked great as he carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning, and then got into a little bit of trouble in the 7th inning when the 3-0 lead changed to a 3-2 lead after an opposite field Ryan Howard two-run home run. Max Scherzer came out for the 8th inning clinging to that 3-2 lead and struck out his 11th batter to end his outing. Never a doubt, right?
The Nationals could not score any more runs since the 4th inning where the offense carried those 3 runs until the end of the game, and the one run deficit held up in the 3-2 game.
Max Scherzer went 8 full innings and dropped his ERA to 2.89, and Mark Melancon picked up his 37th save this season with 7 of those coming as a National, and all this happened after Melancon walked the lead-off man who got erased on a game ending 6-4-3 doubleplay. Never a doubt, right?
The Nationals offense was limited to 7 hits, and 3 walks. RBIs were delivered by Bryce Harper, Wilson Ramos, and Max Scherzer on a well-executed safety squeeze.
Here is Dusty’s post-game comments with the media:
Here is the video recap of the game that you can view on this link.
