Jun 9, 2015; Bronx, NY, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer (31) is relieved during the seventh inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won 6-1. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
It’s been a theme that has been all too common for the Washington Nationals this season. That theme is Max Scherzer not getting much run support in games he starts. With his loss against the New York Yankees last night, Scherzer’s record dropped to 6-5 on the season and he has now lost his last two starts.
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In his six wins, the Nationals have scored 38 total runs. Meanwhile, in Scherzer’s five losses, the Nats have scored six runs. His 3.67 runs of support per start is 17th in the National League and the lowest of any pitcher on the staff.
That being said, the Scherzer-Tanaka matchup lived up to the hype. Masahiro Tanaka had the Nationals off balance for most of the night at the plate with his splitter and slider. Washington had its chances, but they were few and far between.
When you take a look at the NL East, the Nats have to feel a sigh of relief that they are only ½ game behind the New York Mets in the NL East. Plus, they didn’t have the worst night in New York as the Mets were no-hit by Chris Heston and the San Francisco Giants.
Other than Bryce Harper’s two hits, the other eight Nationals in the lineup combined for four hits and two of them came from Yunel Escobar. If the Nats are going to snap out of this collective slump, they need guys like Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, and Wilson Ramos to pick up the slack. The team got bad news an hour before the game when Denard Span, their leadoff hitter that sets the tone, was scratched from the lineup due to back spasms.
Before this afternoon’s game between Gio Gonzalez and Nathan Eovaldi starts at Yankee Stadium, let’s take a look at my takeaways from last night’s game:
Next: Harper vs. Tanaka