The Washington Nationals were led by one familiar face, and one new face, in last night’s win over the San Diego Padres.
More weddings take place in the United States in the month of June than in any other month. While many across the land were focused on making sure there was something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue in place for their big day, the Washington Nationals were concerned only with the first two for their Saturday night showdown with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
The “something old” was veteran Max Scherzer, whose gutty performance led Washington to its first win in three contests so far in the weekend series. The “something new” was young reliever Tanner Rainey, a reliever who is showing he might have what it takes to help stabilize the Nationals’ shaky bullpen.
Fighting through injury, Scherzer shut the Padres out over seven innings pitched with nine strikeouts to put the Nats in position to win. The nine punch-outs gave Scherzer a National League-leading 126 on the year. In 2018, Scherzer led the National League in strikeouts for the third consecutive season as he fanned 300. This season, the Missouri native’s strikeout per nine innings pitched ratio is 12.3, higher than the career-best 12.2 mark he set last year.
Saturday’s outing could easily have been derailed in the bottom of the second when Scherzer took a hard hit ball by Padres’ rookie Josh Naylor off the calf but still recovered to throw Naylor out at first. The injury limited Scherzer’s mobility, but not his desire to finish the job he set out to do.
While the well-decorated Scherzer has earned his skins at the Major League level, reliever Rainey is trying to establish himself as a big leaguer. Acquired from the Cincinnati Reds in December 2018 for popular Nats’ starter Tanner Roark, Rainey’s first games in Nats’ colors have gone very well. The 26-year-old has struck out 17 batters in 10 innings pitched, allowed only two earned runs and has averaged 98.0 miles per hour with his fastball, the sixth highest average in Major League Baseball.
Rainey got three big outs against dangerous Padres’ hitters in the bottom of the eighth in Saturday’s win. He started the frame by striking out Wil Myers looking on an excellent 3-2 slider. Rainey got ahead of the next hitter Manny Machado 0-1 and retired the talented infielder on a grounder to third for the second out. Veteran Eric Hosmer was next for the Padres, and Rainey won a nine-pitch battle as the San Diego first baseman swung through Rainey’s 98 mile per hour fastball on a 3-2 count to end the inning.
When the Nats acquired Rainey this off-season, they knew they were getting a hard-thrower but one who often had trouble getting the ball over the plate. Rainey fanned 371 batters in 293.1 innings pitched as a Minor Leaguer, but also walked 174 opponents. So far as a National he has walked five batters in his ten innings pitched, but he’s shown relatively good command of late and has been able to work ahead of most hitters.
After the game, Nats’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters that he liked the way Rainey looked at him with no fear when Martinez handed him the ball for his first Major League appearance. If Rainey keeps pitching like he has been so far in 2019, Martinez will likely be seeing that look in many high-leverage situations over the season’s final four months.