Fans of the Washington Nationals waited 10 seasons for the first no-hitter in team history which was thrown by Jordan Zimmermann on the final day of the regular season last year. But the fans only had to wait nine months for the second as ace Max Scherzer, who is already having a stellar year atop the Nats rotation, fired his first career no-hitter.
The impressive thing about Scherzer wasn't the fact that he threw a no-hitter yesterday. It was the fact that over his last two starts, the previous one being last Sunday in Milwaukee, was that the batters that had to face him were 1 for 55. In that previous start against the Brewers, Scherzer carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning but a blooper single that Anthony Rendon nearly caught broke up the no-hit bid. However, that was the only hit he gave up as he struck out 16 batters, the most in team history that passed Stephen Strasburg's record of 14 strikeouts from his 2010 big league debut.
The Nats offense helped Max out as they scored six runs in the contest. It all got started when Bryce Harper, who returned to the lineup after injuring his leg a few nights ago, smacked a home run over the centerfield wall in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Scherzer was perfect through seven innings, retiring every single batter he faced before things got scary in the eighth inning. With two outs, the Nats infield shifted to the far right of the diamond with Pedro Alvarez up. Alvarez hit a soft ground ball, Ian Desmond dived for it but missed, then Danny Espinosa came out of nowhere, well actually he was playing in shallow right field, scooped up the ball fired to first just in time to get Alvarez by a step. Scherzer was three outs away from the rare perfect game.
When the ninth inning came the crowd came to their feet. The sellout crowd at Nationals Park was into it right from the start and only grew louder during every two-strike count, giving Scherzer energy while he was going the distance. Scherzer retired the first batter he face in the ninth when Rendon, possibly redeeming himself for not making the catch on Sunday, caught a fly ball that was about to enter the third base dugout. Two outs left. Scherzer then retired the second batter easily with a pop-up to centerfield. With one out to go, Jose Tabata came up to the plate. Down to his last strike, one strike away from perfection, Tabata was battling by fouling off pitch after pitch. Then Scherzer threw an inside slider that hit Tabata ending the chance for a perfect game. But did it hit him? Replays showed Tabata's left arm moving into the strike zone trying to get hit on purpose, in probably one of the lowest and disrespectful moves any ballplayer could ever make.
Scherzer looked toward the sky in shock for about two seconds, then collected himself and kept his cool as focused on the next batter. Even though the perfect game bid was over, there was still a chance he could throw a no-hitter. Just like that, he got the final batter to fly out to left fielder Michael Taylor. Taylor caught it and there it was, a no-hitter!
The entire team mobbed Scherzer and during the post game interview on the field, Scherzer got doused with bottles of chocolate syrup by Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth. A tradition which, ironically, Scherzer himself started every time a player did something heroic in a game. His entire hat and jersey were covered in chocolate syrup and it might be the first time ever, if these make it on display in Cooperstown, that a game worn artifact would be covered in that.
Following the game, Scherzer said he was on cloud nine, "When you can celebrate with your teammates on just a major accomplishment, there's nothing better. My last two starts, this is some of the best baseball I've thrown, best pitching I've done. I just feel like I'm executing all of my pitches. I just continue to keep getting better."
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