After 20-strikeout gem, what will Max Scherzer do for an encore?

Pitcher Max Scherzer returns to the mound Tuesday night when the Nationals start a three-game series in Citi Field against the New York Mets, the team that beat them in the National League East last season. And while Nationals-Mets rivalry - with all that starting pitching on both sides - is one story, there's another to watch: How will Scherzer follow up his historic 20-strikeout game against Detroit on Wednesday night at Nationals Park? As Nationals fans learned during Scherzer's first season in Washington in 2015, he has a flair for repeating history. Last June, he took a no-hitter, two of them perfect games, into the sixth inning three consecutive times. He pitched a one-hitter in Milwaukee and followed it up with a no-hitter at home versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then, in Philadelphia, he retired the first 16 Phillies batters he faced. The 26-inning stretch against the Brewers, Pirates and Phillies might be the best in history: Scherzer retired 70 of 73 batters and had 20 1-2-3 innings while throwing strikes with 73 percent of his 325 pitches. That's why Nationals outfielder Matt den Dekker is right when he says there's always a chance at history when Scherzer pitches. Like Wednesday night, when Scherzer became the fourth pitcher to have 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, joining Kerry Wood, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens on that elite list of pitchers. Clemens did it twice. Like Wood in 1998, Johnson in 2001, and Clemens in 1986 and 1996, Scherzer didn't issue a walk in his 20-strikeout game. Combined, those pitchers had 100 strikeouts and zero walks in their history-making games. And Scherzer is the most efficient of the 20K club: He threw 119 pitches, 96 for strikes, meaning he almost had as many strikeouts as his 23 pitches that missed the zone. By comparison, Wood threw 122 pitches, Johnson 124, and Clemens 151 and 138. Scherzer got 11 strikeouts with his fastball, five on sliders and four on changeups. Fourteen were swinging. Six were called third strikes. He had nine three-pitch at-bats. Five Tigers batters, including Miguel Cabrera - the 2013 AL MVP in the same year Scherzer won the AL Cy for the Tigers - struck out three times. "I've never seen him throw like that,'' Cabrera said afterward. Scherzer went into the ninth inning with 18 strikeouts. He gave up a home run to J.D. Martinez, but he struck out Cabrera and Justin Upton. Tigers catcher James McCann was in line to be strikeout No. 21, but he bounced into a fielder's choice grounder at third to end the game. The Nationals won the game 3-2. Since 2008, Scherzer has 37 double-digit strikeout games, second to the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw with 46. With the win against the Tigers, Scherzer and the Cubs' John Lackey are the only pitchers to have wins against all 30 big-league teams. Scherzer is the only active pitcher to have multiple starts with 17 or more strikeouts. Nolan Ryan had eight, Johnson seven and Clemens three. Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax and Bob Feller each had two 17-strikeout games. Scherzer's other 17-strikeout game? That was Oct. 3 of last season, when he threw his second no-hitter of the season in beating the Mets 2-0 at Citi Field. He became the sixth pitcher in history to throw two no-hitters in a season, the first since Philadelphia's Roy Halladay in 2010. "It doesn't seem possible that this can happen,'' Scherzer said after his second no-hitter last season in New York. That may be, but when Scherzer pitches, reality is often a different story.