Washington Nationals Get Split In Milwaukee Behind 16 Strikeouts From Max Scherzer
By Ricky Keeler
The Washington Nationals were able to salvage a split in Milwaukee after losing the first two games this weekend to the Milwaukee Brewers. Today, it was all about Nationals ace Max Scherzer (7-5, 1.93). For six innings, Scherzer was perfect. Even though Carlos Gomez ended the perfect game bid in the seventh, Scherzer still snapped his two start losing streak in complete game, one-hit fashion as the Nats shutout the Brewers by a final score of 4-0.
In this ball game, Scherzer had his fastball and offspeed pitches working all day and had excellent control. He went the distance, gave up no runs on one hit, struck out 16 batters (a season and career high) and walked one on 119 pitches (86 strikes). It is the fifth time this season that the 30-year-old right-hander has recorded ten or more strikeouts in a game. His 16 strikeouts is a new Nats record as he topped Stephen Strasburg‘s 14 strikeouts that he had in his debut back in 2010.
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Even though Bryce Harper was out of the lineup today due to a knee injury, the rest of the Nationals offense stepped up. They went up against Taylor Jungmann (1-1, 2.25), who was making the second start of his career. The scoring started in the top of the third inning.
Denard Span led off the third with a base hit to center. After he stole second base, Danny Espinosa, who was back at first base today, moved him over to third with a base hit to right. With runners at the corners, Anthony Rendon drove in Span with a sacrifice fly to right field to put the Nats on the board.
In the following inning, Clint Robinson, who was in the lineup for Harper, started it off with a base hit to left. Two batters later, after Robinson was at third due to two wild pitches by Jungmann, Jose Lobaton singled to right field and scored Robinson to put the Nationals up 2-0.
The Nats would tack on two more runs against reliever Jeremy Jeffress in the seventh with a string of two out hits After back-to-back singles by Rendon and Yunel Escobar, Robinson would hit the ball down the left field line for a two-run double that put the Nationals up 4-0. In this series, Robinson went 4-for-10 with a home run and three RBI’s in three games.
Next Game: The Washington Nationals (33-30) will travel out to Tampa Bay to begin a four game series against the Tampa Bay Rays (35-29). Tomorrow and Tuesday’s games will take place at Tropicana Field with Wednesday and Thursday’s games being played at Nats Park. Gio Gonzalez (4-3, 4.42) will start for Washington tomorrow against Erasmo Ramirez (5-2, 4.96) for the Rays. You can catch the game on MASN2 at 7:10 PM ET.