Walks, grand slam define Scherzer's latest confounding start

Max Scherzer's postgame media sessions so far this season can easily be separated into two groups. He's either asked: 1) What allowed him to be so dominant on that particular night, or 2) Why does he continue to give up significant home runs at the worst possible time?

There has been precious little middle ground with Scherzer through the first two months of 2016. Sometimes he looks like the best pitcher on the planet. Sometimes he looks like the most-hittable pitcher on the planet. He rarely looks like anything between the two extremes.

So when it happened again tonight during a 6-2 loss to the Cardinals, the questions sounded awfully familiar and the answers conveyed the same sense of frustration and bewilderment that has accompanied all of Scherzer's losses this season.

As manager Dusty Baker put it: "There's really no explanation."

Scherzer's 15th surrendered home run of the year - most in the majors - was particularly egregious. It was a grand slam by Stephen Piscotty, the nail in the coffin during a five-run top of the third, and it came on a pitch (an 0-1 slider over the plate) the ace right-hander couldn't excuse.

"It was a dumb pitch," he said. "I hadn't shown my fastball yet, and I threw another slider and I hung it. He put a good swing on it, ended in a blast."

Scherzer hasn't gotten upset over every home run he's given up this year, sometimes giving the hitter credit, sometimes insisting they're just part of the game. But he's all too aware of the lopsided rate in which balls are clearing the fence off him; he has now surrendered 33 percent of all homers hit against the Nationals despite throwing only 16 percent of the staff's total innings.

"That's quite a high number," Baker said of the 15 home runs. "I don't know how many he gave up in the past. But everybody knows that Max throws strikes."

That may be part of the problem. Scherzer puts so many pitches over the plate, opposing hitters can feel free to take big cuts and hope they connect. Perhaps in response to that, he actually struggled to find the strike zone early in tonight's game.

Scherzer walked four of the first 12 Cardinals who stepped to the plate, including Greg Garcia to open the game, Brandon Moss (on four pitches) to open the second inning and Garcia again in the third after getting ahead in the count 0-2.

"It seems like I keep walking the left-handed hitters," said Scherzer, who indeed has issued 20 of his 22 total walks to lefties. "That's the bigger thing that will frustrate me more than the walks themselves. I've got to find a way to attack the left-handed hitters a little bit better and keep them at bay. Obviously, that's something I'll work on, but I think at the end of the day it's just coming up with those put-away pitches, so that if I'm in a two-strike count, the at-bat's over."

Perhaps the strangest part of Scherzer's outing: After putting seven of the first 13 batters he faced on base, he proceeded to retire the last 14 in order before departing after the top of the seventh.

"As much as I hate taking a punch to the face, giving up five runs, the only solace that can come out of this is that I did go seven," he said. "So you save some innings on the bullpen, you save the wear and tear, and that can help those guys tomorrow and the next day. So as frustrating as it is for me to go out there and give up a crooked number like that, the fact that I can save the bullpen at least saves something for us."

And so at the end of all this, here is where Scherzer finds himself. He has the 15th-best WHIP in the NL (1.09). He trails only Clayton Kershaw with 90 strikeouts. He has allowed four or fewer hits in four of his 11 starts. He recorded only the fifth 20-strikeout, nine-inning game in baseball history.

Yet his ERA stands at 4.05. He has surrendered the most homers in the majors. His record is 5-4.

What to make of all that?

"It happens to everybody," shortstop Danny Espinosa said. "I'll take him out there any day. He goes out and competes. And tonight just didn't have everything that he wanted. But he still competed."