Nats get gritty performance from Max Scherzer in 5-4 win

The Nationals offense came out of the gates quick, fell asleep for a couple hours and then awakened just in time to beat the Diamondbacks 5-4 to remain one game behind in the National League East race.

Yunel Escobar smacked his second leadoff homer of the year to get things going in the first. A base knock from Anthony Rendon and a blistered double from Bryce Harper then set up an RBI single from Ryan Zimmerman and a run-producing groundout from Jayson Werth. Normally that would be enough offense for Nationals ace Max Scherzer.

After coasting through the first three innings, Scherzer ran into problems in the fourth. A one-out walk to David Peralta began a stretch of four consecutive Diamondbacks reaching base. Singles from Jake Lamb and Jarrod Saltalamacchia led to Peralta scoring Arizona's first run. Then Scherzer hung a slider, and Chris Owings ripped it to left to drive in two and tie the game on the double.

"Everybody makes mistakes when they go out there," Nationals manager Matt Williams said about Scherzer's rough inning. "Sometimes those get popped up or grounded into the ground, and sometimes they go for a double. The good thing is that he competes regardless."

After issuing his third walk of the game, Scherzer beared down and limited the damage by striking out Josh Collmenter and Ender Inciarte to end the frame. Scherzer didn't allow a baserunner over his final two frames. He left after throwing 114 pitches in six innings while surrendering three runs on four hits with three walks and nine strikeouts.

"It's a little mental reset," Scherzer explained on regaining his composure after the fourth. "You gotta reset and start asking, 'What do I want to execute as an out pitch? What do I feel is gonna be the out pitch to this guy?' And then you start working backwards. 'Okay, if that's the out pitch, what's gonna be the middle pitch and how do I wanna attack him early?' That's what I pride myself on is having a plan and going out there and executing. You just gotta go back there and reset and go back through your routine."

Scherzer went 20 starts without walking three batters in a game. He's now issued three free passes in consecutive games.

"That's frustrating to me because I take pride in not walking guys," Scherzer said. "At the same time, I say the last 15 pitches can sometimes tell you how your start went, and to be able to go out there for the sixth and put up a clean zero, that was big for the ballcub."

Right-handers Casey Janssen and Drew Storen blanked the Diamondbacks in the seventh and eighth, respectively. That gave the Nationals a chance to win it late.

Zimmerman worked a key leadoff walk in the eighth. A double by Werth put two Nationals in scoring position, and Wilson Ramos delivered them home with a single flicked to right. The Nationals bench erupted as you could almost feel the collective sigh of relief from a team that had dropped four straight to lose their hold on first place in the division.

It got a little dicey in the ninth for Jonathan Papelbon, but the new closer was able to gain his second save with the Nats.

"If we can play our baseball, play to our capabilities, we can win ballgames," Scherzer said. "Hey, I respect the Mets. I respect what they do. At the end of the day, it's August. I'm not worried about anybody else. I'm only focused on what we do. When we get late in September and we want to scoreboard watch, that's fine. But right now, that's not the time for it."

Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt struck out in all four of his plate appearances. In the fifth, Goldschmidt became Scherzer's 1,500th strikeout victim of his big league career. With the whiff, Scherzer also became the first pitcher to notch 1,500 strikeouts as a member of the Nationals.

"That's a really cool milestone," Scherzer said. "To get it within seven years of my career shows performance and durability. We keep seeing guys go down with shoulder injuries, elbow injuries, and I've been fortunate enough to stay away from that and be durable and go out there and make 30-plus starts a season. I feel like that's the reason I'm able to get to this milestone at this point in time."