"Little things" cost Scherzer in latest no-hit bid

It has become somewhat commonplace in these parts, and so folks tend not to get overexcited when it happens. Make no mistake, though, Dusty Baker knew what was going on with Max Scherzer, just as every one of the 30,978 spectators at Nationals Park knew it.

"Everybody was thinking it. You were thinking it," Baker said of Scherzer's no-hit bid against the Indians. "Because he knows how to close out those games. Then it went from a no-hitter to a loss in a matter of time, and we couldn't muster too much offense."

That pretty much sums up the final three innings of this interleague game. Scherzer carried his latest no-hitter attempt into the seventh, but then a quick turn of events got Cleveland on the board and the Nationals lineup had no answer in what wound up a disheartening 3-1 loss.

Scherzer accepted the blame, citing a series of "little mistakes" that turned the game around in the top of the seventh. Then again, it's tough to win with an offense that produced exactly one run for the third consecutive game.

Remarkably, the Nats did win one of those game, 1-0 over Madison Bumgarner and the Giants on Sunday.

The way Scherzer looked much of the night, though, one run looked like it could be satisfactory for the Nationals. He retired the first 14 batters he faced, six of them via strikeout, and barely broke a sweat while doing it on a muggy, overcast evening in the District.

Tyler Naquin quashed any thoughts of a perfect game when he drew a two-out walk in the fifth, but Scherzer still did not allow a hit through the sixth, the crowd growing more and more interested as each frame passed without the zero under the "H" heading changing at all.

"Once you make it through six, you've got a shot," he said. "I threw the ball really well tonight."

And one of his teammates made the kind of highlight-reel play in the field that so often helps make a no-hitter possible. When Roberto Perez launched a pitch from Scherzer deep to left-center to open the top of the sixth, the veteran hurler assumed he had just blown it.

"I thought that ball was gone," he admitted.

Ben Revere had other ideas. Just as he did Sunday afternoon with an over-the-shoulder catch at the base of the wall in straightaway center field to get Tanner Roark out of a jam, he made a leaping grab of Perez's drive right up against the fence, drawing a roar from the crowd and fist pumps from Scherzer.

"The crowd is standing up, cheering. They know the situation going on," said Revere, who traveled 110 feet to get to the ball, according to Statcast. "That's the main thing. I don't want to be the reason he kind of lost it. The main thing is having my pitcher's back right there."

Revere's catch helped Scherzer reach the seventh. But there was no defense to help him after that. Francisco Lindor sent a sharp single up the middle with one out to notch the Indians' first hit of the night. Then came the meltdown.
Scherzer fired an errant pickoff attempt, sending the ball careening down into foul territory down the right field line and sending Lindor all the way to third base.

"That's something that can't happen," Scherzer said. "I have to be in control of that. I can't throw the ball away. (First baseman Daniel Murphy) has no shot at catching that ball. It's just something that I messed up, and that cost me the game."

With Lindor now on third, teammate Jose Ramirez launched a double off the wall in right-center, accounting for the night's first run. The Cleveland cleanup man then surprised Scherzer by stealing third, putting himself in position to score on Lonnie Chisenhall's subsequent bloop single to left.

"That's the difference in the game," Scherzer said. "Those little things, those little plays completely changed the game. I gotta be better at that."

Tough to nitpick about a guy who carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. But, Scherzer doesn't keep putting himself in that kind of situation without being a perfectionist.