Scherzer double trouble in 8-1 win over Phillies

PHILADELPHIA - For the second consecutive night, the Nationals provided early offense for their starting pitcher.

For a second consecutive night, a Nationals starting pitcher contributed at the plate.

It all added up to another convincing win for the Nationals, 8-1 over the Phillies.

The Nationals already led 3-0 with two outs in the fourth. Wilson Ramos was on second courtesy of a double, and the Phillies elected to intentionally walk Danny Espinosa to get to pitcher Max Scherzer. It's the right play, most of the time.

But Scherzer had other ideas. He lofted a two-run double over right fielder Cedric Hunter's glove ito put the Nationals up 5-0. The right-hander cruised from there.

"It is what it is," Scherzer said of his unlikely offense. "I know the situation. That's my time to come up there and do something to help the team. When you have a chance to get a hit and score some RBIs, that really helps the ballclub out and turns the lineup over.

"I take pride in my hitting. I know I punched out five times previous to this at-bat. But that was a good AB and good thing for the team."

Scherzer takes swings in the batting tunnel during pregame and spends time during his off-days working on his approach at the plate.

"I swing a lot in the cage," Scherzer said. "I try to swing almost every day. Any time I can go out there and help the team win, that's a great thing."

The offense scored three runs in the first on run-scoring hits from Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy, and a sacrifice fly by Bryce Harper.

Harper continued his power hitting with a two-run homer, his third blast in as many games. He has at least two hits and a homer in his last five games at Citizens Bank Park. He finished with three RBIs.

"I just love playing here," Harper said. "I see the ball really well here. Great place to play, great park to play in. I feel comfortable here."

"The dimensions of this park (are) very, very reachable," said manager Dusty Baker. "This is probably one of the most friendly parks, I think, in the league outside of maybe even including Colorado, Arizona and Cincinnati. Those are very, very friendly parks and this is big-time friendly."

Chris Heisey added a pinch-hit homer in the ninth for the final Nationals run.

Scherzer was double trouble for the Phillies.

He got the big hit and, even without his best stuff, once again delivered seven innings, allowing just one run with seven strikeouts and only one walk. He scattered five hits.

"I didn't attack well, but I pitched well," Scherzer said. "Falling behind a lot, but only issued one walk. You want to make an adjustment off that, make sure that you're ahead in the count, but I also did some good things, was pitching with all the pitches. I didn't attack the zone as well as I normally do, but found ways to still get outs.

"Threw some good off-speed pitches when I needed to, especially early in the game. I thought they were going to come out aggressive against me and I was right, and was able to kind of negate that."

Added Baker: "(Scherzer) was very good, other than having quite a few deep counts. That's what cost him on his pitch count. He threw the ball great. He even got a big, big base hit for us, a double. That was huge, that was real big.

"I was told Scherzer didn't get many runs last year, especially early. If we get him runs, he knows what to do with them."

Scherzer was thrilled to get his team to 9-1 and he was also thrilled for another D.C. team who had success tonight against a team from Philadelphia. The Capitals defeated the Flyers 4-1 to go up two games to none in their opening-round NHL playoff series.

"We're just having fun, just taking every day, going out there and competing giving it our all," Scherzer said. "Offense comes out early and scores runs the past few games. The pitchers are feeding off that. We just got a good thing going.

"It was a great day for the D.C. area. We go out there, take care of business against Philly and so did the Caps. They beat Philly too - 2-0 for us."