Washington Nationals: Scherzer Gets Redemption Against Cubs
By Ricky Keeler
Last night, the Washington Nationals defeated the Cubs 4-1 for their first win against Chicago this year. Here are our takeaways:
Back on May 6, the Washington Nationals saw arguably one of Max Scherzer’s worst starts in a Nats uniform when he gave up seven runs and four home runs over five innings. Last night, it was a much different Scherzer as the Nats defeated the Cubs for the first time in 2016 and they picked up their 40th win of the season. Plus, they increased their NL East lead to five games (Mets were off).
Scherzer went seven innings, gave up one run on two hits and struck out 11 batters on 96 pitches (63 strikes) as he picked up his third consecutive win. This was the start the Nats needed from their ace to start off one of their most important series of the season so far.
As for the offense, they finally had some success against Kyle Hendricks as they scored more runs against him last night than they had in their three prior starts against the 26-year-old right-hander.
In this game, Dusty Baker had his runners get aggressive on the bases and made Chicago’s defense make mistakes, such as in the third inning when Dexter Fowler made a bad throw to third base that allowed Jayson Werth to score the game’s first run.
Before the Cubs and Nats play game two of their three game series tonight (7:05 p.m ET, MASN/MLB Network), here are my three takeaways from last night’s 4-1 win by the Washington Nationals:
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