After taking the afternoon game 3-1, the Washington Nationals took the field in the Big Apple looking to sweep the doubleheader in a game that, had the division not already been decided, would have easily been a “must watch.” But even without high stakes, the game still lived up to its billing. Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71 ERA)pitched well through six innings, surrendering only one unearned run through six innings of work.
Yet as impressive as Harvey was, Nats’ ace Max Scherzer (14-12, 2.79) was even more impressive, amassing 17 strikeouts, including a streak of nine in a row at one point as he was on his way to his second no-hitter of the season. Scherzer returned to the dominant form that he had shown in the first half of the season, and came within an error of a perfect game.
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As expected, the game started off as an all-out pitchers duel, with Harvey and Scherzer trading scoreless frames through five. Then, in the top of the sixth, the Nationals finally broke through (just barely) against Harvey.
The rally started when Michael Taylor reached on an error by Mets third baseman Kelly Johnson to lead off the inning. Taylor moved over to third on a single by Clint Robinson, then came home to score on Wilson Ramos’ sacrifice fly, giving the Nationals a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, the Nationals managed an error of their own, also by their third baseman. Yunel Escobar bounced his throw to first, and Robinson could not handle it, allowing Kevin Plawecki to reach. Up until that point, Scherzer had retired all 15 batters he had faced; Escobar’s error ended his bid for a perfect game. Fortunately, the Nats ace was able to work around the error and kept the Mets from doing any damage.
With Harvey out after six, the Nationals added another run in the top of the seventh. Dan Uggla, who replaced Wilmer Difo after Difo apparently injured his thumb sliding head-first into first base earlier in the game, got a hold of a pitch left out over the plate and crushed it to left field. The Nationals lead was 2-0.
From there, it was all pitching, with Max Scherzer doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. Scherzer got on a roll, striking out nine in a row before Curtis Granderson‘s pop-up ended the game. He was unstoppable, and calling his performance historically great would be closer to understatement than hyperbole.
The Nationals will put a wrap on their season Sunday, as Tanner Roark (4-7, 4.63 ERA) goes up against Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.60 ERA). You can catch the game on MASN2 at 3:10 PM ET.
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