John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — Of the five Washington Nationals starting pitchers, Max Scherzer was by far the struggling the most this early season. His Earned Run Average is the only one over .400, and in his last outing, he was beaten up for four home runs. But Wednesday night, Scherzer proved once again he is also by far the most electrifying hurler – not only on the Nats’ staff – but perhaps in all of baseball.
Scherzer struck out 20 Detroit Tigers en route to a 3-2 six-hit complete game win, a feat matched in a nine-inning game by only three other pitchers in the history of baseball. Randy Johnson did it most recently, in 2001. Kerry Wood did it as a rookie, and Roger Clemens actually did it twice. But in joining the unique club, Scherzer added his own superlative.
Scherzer completed the feat in 119 pitches – the fewest among the 20-strikeout foursome, and he threw 96 strikes – by far the highest percentage among the quartet.
Entering the ninth inning with 18 strikeouts, Scherzer managed to whiff two more batters, in between giving up a home run to the Tigers’ J.D Martinez and a single to Victor Martinez. The Nationals’ ace had a chance to stand alone as the all-time single-game strikeout king with 21 K’s, but the Tigers’ James McCann, who had been fanned three times by Scherzer, spoiled the feat by grounding out to end the game.
Still, Scherzer, who became the first man in more than 40 years to toss two no-hitters in a single season in 2015, was happy to walk away with 20 strikeouts.
“To be able to punch out 20,” he said, “it’s sexy.”
“There’s something about 20 in this game. Twenty strikeouts, 20 wins — those are huge numbers. To be able to go out there tonight and be able to accomplish one of those, that’s a huge feat,” he added.
Scherzer’s feat came on what was an emotional night all around at Nationals Park.
More than 35,000 fans turned out for the return of former Nats pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who signed with the Tigers in the off-season, and came into last night’s game with a gaudy 5-1 record, and a 1.10 ERA to match. He was facing his former team for the first time, as was Scherzer, who came to the Nats in 2015 after winning the Cy Young award with Detroit in 2013.
“Tonight was an emotional game,” said Scherzer, “Facing a former team and all those guys I have so much respect for and how they play the game and how they compete. I really think the world [of] how they go out there and play the game, and so to have a game like this against that caliber of hitters on their side, that really puts a feather in my cap.”
Zimmermann, owner of the first no-hitter in Nationals/Expos history in 2013, pitched well, but took the loss after giving up three runs in seven innings.
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