Nats ride Scherzer's 14 strikeouts to 2-1 victory over Dodgers (updated)

LOS ANGELES - The running joke around the Nationals is that anytime Max Scherzer takes the mound, you better watch because something special is probably going to happen.

Thing is, it's not a joke. It's real. And these days, Scherzer is spectacular.

Or as teammate Koda Glover described it: "He's a stud."

The Nationals ace added another memorable performance to his ever-growing resume tonight, striking out 14 Dodgers in only seven innings, 11 of them in the game's first 3 2/3 innings. And thanks to another effective performance from their bullpen, the Nats emerged with a 2-1 victory and a chance to wrap up a remarkable California trip with a sweep of Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon.

Scherzer was brilliant, done in only by an elevated pitch count (105) that forced manager Dusty Baker to pull him after the seventh and entrust a one-run lead to his bullpen.

"He can get sharp when he needs to be," Baker said. "He had quite a few pitches early. And the strikeouts don't help with your pitch total. But Max was outstanding."

As was the Nationals relief corps for the second straight night.

Oliver Pérez retired the side in the eighth, striking out a pair. Then Glover, who was unavailable Monday after throwing 22 pitches the day before in Oakland, pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out Yasiel Puig with a 3-2 slider down and away to strand the tying runner on second base and ignite tempers just as the game ended.

Glover celebrated his eighth save in as many opportunities since taking over the closer's job last month and said something to Puig, also motioning with his right hand for the Dodgers outfielder to head back to his dugout. Puig stopped to look back, then slowly approached Glover before both benches emptied.

Order was restored before anything significant could happen, but emotions between the two participants were still running high as they exited the field.

"Tempers flared a little bit," Glover said. "It is what it is. I don't have any hard feelings toward him. He was staring at me. I didn't like it. It is what it is."

Puig did not make himself available to reporters in the Dodgers clubhouse.

Strange ending or not, the Nationals now head into Wednesday's marquee matinee - Stephen Strasburg vs. Clayton Kershaw - with a chance to sweep the team that knocked them out of the postseason last fall after opening this long West Coast trip with a 7-1 record.

"Not bad," Baker said. "But 8-1 is better."

Scherzer usually offers up solid evidence that he's headed for one of those special nights right from the get-go, but that wasn't entirely the case tonight. Four batters into this game, he had allowed two singles and watched as Daniel Murphy couldn't handle a third well-struck ball, all of it leading to a quick Dodgers run.

But then Scherzer struck out both Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor to end the first. And then he struck out the side in the second. And suddenly it became clear this was a performance worth watching.

Corey Seager did make an out on a ball in play in the bottom of the third: a flyout to center. But then one of those baseball oddities put Scherzer back in line to do the utterly ridiculous. His called third strike to Bellinger was dropped by catcher Matt Wieters, and as the ball rolled away Bellinger raced safely to first base to keep the inning alive even though Scherzer was still credited with a strikeout.

And when he then struck out Taylor the conventional way to end the frame, Scherzer had himself nine of them in three innings, leaving the unheard-of possibility of 27 mathematically possible.

That said, Scherzer's pitch count was high early. He needed 53 pitches to get through the third, 72 to get through the fourth (with 11 strikeouts). At this point, efficiency started becoming more important than swings-and-misses.

"I knew I had nine strikeouts through three," he said. "But it's one of those things, I knew after a couple of those walks, my pitch count was up. I needed to get in the zone and not necessarily pitch for the strikeout. ... If you do get into two-strike situations, just put them away. I'm a strikeout pitcher. It's just who I am. And even when your pitch count is high sometimes, you'd rather just finish an at-bat than give up a hit."

Scherzer did start getting quick outs after that, thanks to a Los Angeles lineup that started turning aggressive early in the count. He completed the fifth inning in eight pitches, the sixth in 12 pitches. That left him at 92 total pitches through six frames, with 13 strikeouts to his name.

Scherzer added one more whiff to the ledger in the seventh, and when he got Chase Utley to pop up to end the inning, he walked back to the dugout and accepted high-fives and handshakes, his night done after 105 pitches.

"I knew I just needed to execute early in the count," he said. "You got the sense they didn't want to get to two strikes. And they were going to be aggressive. That's where Wieters and I were anticipating that, to know what pitch we wanted to throw."

The Nationals gave their ace a slim lead, managing two runs off Dodgers starter Brandon McCarthy, who pitched quite well but was overshadowed by his counterpart. Trea Turner's infield single in the top of the first, followed by two stolen bases and Bryce Harper's sacrifice fly, accounted for the first run.

Harper's leadoff double in the fourth, followed by productive outs from Ryan Zimmerman and Murphy, accounted for the second run.

All of which left Scherzer in position to earn the win, his bullpen mates to finish off his gem and the Nationals to make a statement against a high-profile opponent.

"Look, this is a great team," Scherzer said. "Obviously we remember what happened last year. The crowd behind them, this is a great atmosphere to play in. When you have great teammates who go out there and play hard and do everything they can, it's great to be here and win the first two games of the series."