Nationals: Takeaways from Max Scherzer’s 20 Strikeout Performance
Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer had 20 strikeouts last night vs. the Tigers. What stood out about the former Cy Young winner’s outing?
When Washington Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer walked onto the field yesterday evening, there were many questioning whether the 31-year old had lost a step amidst early struggles in his second season as a National. He sported a disappointing 4.60 ERA through his first seven starts, highlighted by an alarming nine homers.
Facing departed teammate Jordan Zimmermann (5-2, 1.50 ERA), who was pitted against his former team for the first time as well, Scherzer was going to have to give it his all if the Nats were going to come out of this one with a win. Needless to say, Scherzer was able to put those rumblings to rest at the expense of his former club.
Mad Max struck out 20 Tigers in his first career start against Detroit, joining Randy Johnson (2001), Kerry Wood (1998), and Roger Clemens (1986, 1996) as the fourth pitcher in baseball history to record 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game. He allowed two runs on six hits (two home runs) without walking a single batter.
This is what 20 K's looks and sounds like. #Nats #MadMax pic.twitter.com/Gkka16u6to
— Eddie Matz (@eddie_matz) May 12, 2016
The affair was Scherzer’s sixth career complete game, and his fifth in a Nationals uniform. After finishing in the top five in Cy Young voting for the third straight year in 2015, expectations are at an all-time high for the $210 million man. What are the biggest takeaways from his historic 20 strikeout performance? Read on to find out.
Next: No Free Passes
Go Take a Walk, Detroit
Max Scherzer threw 119 pitches against the Tigers Wednesday, including a staggering 96 strikes (81 percent). If my math is correct, then it would follow that Max missed the strike zone only 23 times throughout the entire contest: the lowest number of balls ever thrown in a 20 strikeout game. As catcher Wilson Ramos puts it, he was simply untouchable.
“The aggressiveness he showed out there on the mound, he kept attacking the zone despite the Tigers having a very impressive offensive lineup. He just kept attacking, and that’s what made him so good tonight.” (h/t Mark Zuckerman, MASNSports.com)
Scherzer did not issue a single walk while allowing only two hitters to draw three-ball counts. Avoiding free passes seems to be a trend amongst the 20 strikeout club, as all three of his predecessors managed to avoid walking anybody as well.
According to Brooks Baseball, the Nats’ ace most effective pitch was his changeup. The off-speed pitch induced swings-and-misses 39 percent of the time, the highest total of any of the pitches he threw more than five times. He relied the most on his fastball (62 thrown), and for very good reason: 82 percent of the fastballs he threw resulted in strikes.
Scherzer is not known as a walk-prone pitcher. Entering Wednesday’s game, he ranked 33rd in all of baseball with a 2.61 BB/9 among 73 qualified players with at least 1,000 innings pitched since he entered the league in 2008. He sported a 3.14 BB/9 on the current season prior to the game, his highest mark since 2010. With yesterday’s performance, however, that number dropped to 2.60.
Next: Last Team Standing
Everyone’s Experienced the Fury of Mad Max
With his win over the Tigers, Scherzer joined John Lackey as the only two active pitchers to have beaten all 30 teams in the majors. Detroit was the last team standing, having been able to avoid Max’s wrath up until yesterday:
With epic start vs. former club, @Max_Scherzer becomes 2nd active pitcher (John Lackey) to beat ALL 30 @MLB teams. pic.twitter.com/Wi8wvH07cK
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 12, 2016
Scherzer kicked off his career without much luck on his side, failing to record a win across 16 appearances during his rookie season in 2008. His first win finally came on May 16, 2009 in a 12-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves in which he threw six shutout innings for the Diamondbacks. Max would finish the year with a modest 9-11 record, the final season (so far) that he recorded below a double digit win total.
The following offseason, Scherzer was traded to the Tigers in a three-way deal that landed Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy in Arizona. It isn’t very hard to judge how that one turned out. Since then, Max has recorded the second most wins in all of baseball (100) behind only Clayton Kershaw’s 105. Kennedy and Jackson have combined for only 28 more between the two of them.
In 2013, Scherzer made headlines with a 13-0 start on his way to winning the American League Cy Young. He finished the summer boasting a 21-3 record, leading the majors in wins in what was his first All-Star season.
By the time Max signed the massive free agent deal with Washington and made the switch to the National League, he only had six teams left to beat. He knocked four more off the list last season, leaving Detroit and St. Louis as the final two teams remaining. Scherzer was able to take care of the Cardinals on May 1, striking out nine batters across seven shutout innings. This all set the stage for Wednesday’s game, allowing Max to fittingly complete his quest against a team he had accomplished so much with.
Next: Nats Reaping the Benefits
Scherzer Stands Alone in Nationals History
Since Max Scherzer joined the Nats prior to the 2015 season, he has made 41 starts in a D.C. uniform. Among those starts, the St. Louis native has two-hitters, a 16 strikeout one-hitter, and a 20 strikeout performance. He has struck out 15 or more hitters on three separate occasions, while the rest of the Nationals organization has managed just one (Tanner Roark, 2016).
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Although a player cannot typically live up to a massive contract during their first two years on the team, Scherzer is giving it his best effort. Forget the homers, who can argue with the success he’s had on the mound these last two years? He is proving again and again that he was well worth the money, and then some.
Max had the second most strikeouts in the league last year (276), once again only behind that guy named Kershaw. His first no-hitter came within one out of a perfect game, and he struck out 17 Mets in his second. Both performances came against eventual playoff teams, leaving the door open for Nats fans to imagine how he’ll fare in October himself.
Next: Recap: Scherzer Ties MLB Strikeout Record
The Nationals signed Stephen Strasburg to a seven year, $175 million contract extension earlier this week, solidifying the one-two punch of Scherzer/Strasburg at the top of the rotation for the foreseeable future. Lucas Giolito, the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, will be joining them soon, and Joe Ross is under team control through 2021. If that doesn’t give Nationals fans a sense of ease when it comes to the rotation, nothing will.