The great news is that Max Scherzer bounced back from a rough start last Friday in which he began that game giving up 3 consecutive home runs, and today he dominated the Brewers over 6 innings of one run baseball while watching his teammates victimize Michael Blazek for 4 consecutive home runs. Scherzer was actually on-base and scored on the first home run in the record-setting 3rd inning. Scherzer can partially empathize with Blazek.
The Nationals offense went with the long-ball today and tied a Major League record with 5 home runs in an inning and 4 home runs in a row by Brian Goodwin, Wilmer Difo, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman. It was Anthony Rendon who hit the 5th home run in that record tying 3rd inning after Daniel Murphy lined out and was playfully booed by the home crowd of 32,118 fans at Nats Park. Video here of the home run barrage. On the game, the Nationals had 8 home runs of which Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman had 2 each.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that,” Dusty Baker said. “I’ve seen back-to-back-to-back, but not 4-in-a-row. It’s like you almost can’t believe it.”
This is Max Scherzer's 1st 200 K season since last season, and the season before that, and the season before that, and the season before… pic.twitter.com/1y3KRjuP2F
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 27, 2017
Max Scherzer threw his 200th strikeout of the season in this game on his way to his 12th win of the season. Scherzer dropped his ERA to 2.23 which is the best in the Majors for active qualified pitchers. The reigning National League Cy Young now has 6 seasons in which he has thrown at least 200 strikeouts in a season.
The Nationals took 2 of the 3 games from the Brewers to complete this series and finished on a high note after being dominated in the series opener on Tuesday. The two teams will meet again in Milwaukee starting on August 31st in a 4 game series that is sure to have rosters that will look much different than today as the Nationals should have back several injured players like Trea Turner, Michael Taylor, and Jayson Werth. On the second game of that series the calendar turns to September when both teams will be able to expand their rosters from 25 players up to a maximum of 40 players.
Every Nats starter had at least one hit and Max Scherzer had 2 walks to go with his single. Andrew Stevenson tallied his 1st hit of his MLB career when he came in to indirectly take Bryce Harper’s spot in the line-up. In all, the Nationals had 19 hits and 5 walks to finish off this 15-2 win.
“When you have that type of talent in your lineup and that type of momentum going, anything can happen,” Bryce Harper said. “We got the guys that hit homers and have good at-bats, and that’s what we did today.”
Many have asked how you get All-Star game tickets, and here is an interview with Valerie Camillo of the Nationals on the popular 94.7 Tommy Show with Kelley Collis. Click here.
