All-Stars Scherzer and Harper carry Nationals to 7-2 victory

ST. LOUIS - Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer are the Nationals' two brightest stars, and on the day each earned the fifth All-Star selection of his career, each shone bright on the national stage.

Harper clobbered two early home runs and Scherzer tossed seven scoreless innings to carry the Nationals to a 7-2 victory over the Cardinals in tonight's nationally televised ballgame and avoid a weekend sweep at Busch Stadium.

It was a classic performance on the big stage for both All-Stars, with Scherzer opening the second half of the season with yet another dominant start reminiscent of his first half.

The ace allowed only two singles and two walks in his seven innings, striking out 12 in the 10th double-digit outing of his season. He struck out the evening's first four batters, let runners reach scoring position in only one inning and cruised through his 100 pitches without appearing to exert much effort.

With the win, Scherzer improved to 10-5 with an MLB-best 1.94 ERA on the season. He is now striking out 9.6 batters per start while allowing a miniscule 3.9 hits per outing.

All of that - plus the fact Clayton Kershaw is slated to start next Sunday for the Dodgers - makes Scherzer the frontrunner to earn the starting nod in next week's All-Star Game, where he would join Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy as four-ninths of the NL's starting lineup.

Harper helped put Scherzer in position to earn his 10th win with an early offensive explosion against Cardinals ace Carlos Martínez.

The recently named starting outfielder and top All-Star vote-getter, Harper blasted a 2-2 pitch from Martínez to right field in the top of the first, giving the Nationals a quick 2-0 lead and matching their entire offensive output from the previous two nights.

Two innings later, Harper sent an 0-2 pitch from Martínez into the right field bullpen for another two-run homer, his 20th of the season to overtake Zimmerman for the club lead.

Anthony Rendon's RBI double extended the Nationals' lead to 5-0 in the third and provided Scherzer with plenty of cushion. And that cushion grew to 7-0 when they tacked on a couple more runs in the top of the eighth, after Scherzer had already received a hug in the dugout from manager Dusty Baker.

Needing six outs from their bullpen to lock up the victory, the Nationals watched as Enny Romero served up a two-run homer to Tommy Pham in the bottom of the eighth before getting through the inning without any more damage.

Matt Albers then pitched the ninth to finish off the game.