Scherzer goes the distance on 100 pitches to beat Giants

SAN FRANCISCO - As Max Scherzer stalked his way out to the mound for the bottom of the ninth inning tonight, Dusty Baker would have been justified in sending one of his relievers down to the bullpen to begin warming up.

Not because Baker didn't believe Scherzer would be able to complete this game on his own. But with the Nationals leading the Giants by the relatively slim margin of 3-1, it wouldn't have taken much for the script of this contest to flip in a hurry.

Yet the thought never really crossed Baker's mind. Scherzer had utterly dominated San Francisco's lineup all night. His pitch count when the ninth inning began was a scant 89. There simply was no reason to think any other hurler would be necessary to win this game.

"When you've got an ace like that, when you've got one of the elite pitchers like that, who in the bullpen throws better than the guy you have out there?" Baker rhetorically asked. "That's how you've got to think about it. In some cases, you do. But in most cases when Max is on, you don't. Who out there can deal the way he was dealing?"

Nobody. The answer is nobody.

Scherzer has authored more dominant starts in a Nationals uniform, but he has never authored a more efficient one. In only 100 pitches, he went the distance, allowing one run on five hits, still striking out 11 and finishing with a flourish as he ramped up the intensity level to new heights.

"When he starts smelling the end of the game," catcher Matt Wieters said, "he's better than anyone."

Scherzer's fifth nine-inning complete game as a member of the Nationals wasn't a no-hitter (like two previous ones) and it wasn't a 20-strikeout gem (like another previous one). It did, however, feature six fewer pitches than any of the others, evidence of his ability to get ahead of batters, get quick outs and get quickly back to the dugout.

And with both Koda Glover (who pitched four of the last five days) and Matt Albers (who threw 34 pitches Tuesday night) likely unavailable, Scherzer recognized late in the game he would be serving as his own closer tonight.

"I think after the seventh, I knew my pitch count was low," he said. "I think the eighth, I kind of knew where I was in the order, knowing that ... at any time they could pick a dogfight and really try to grind out some ABs. So I knew I at least had some pitches there for the eighth. But I got some early outs in the eighth, and that really saved the pitch count. So I was fresh, ready to go for the ninth and ready to give everything I've got in the ninth."

Scherzer had the look of dominance from the outset tonight, cruising through the bottom of the first on 12 pitches. He proceeded to retire the first 10 batters he faced, surely leaving everyone in the announced crowd of 41,371 fearing the worst.

Those fears weren't realized once Eduardo Núñez sent a sharp grounder past a diving Trea Turner with one out in the fourth for the Giants' first hit of the night. And when Jayson Werth and Michael A. Taylor lost Buster Posey's routine fly ball to left-center in the twilight, Nuñez came around to score and deny Scherzer a chance at a shutout.

But Scherzer locked himself back in from there, never letting the Giants put two men on base in the same inning again, and finishing off a game knowing at times he still was one bad pitch away from giving up a tying home run.

"When you get to the seventh inning, you start pitching to the scoreboard," he said. "And you respect who's the power threat and who's not. You know you have to execute pitches where you want. When you miss, you miss in the right spot and miss out of the zone. Command becomes the utmost importance. I've been burned many times by home runs. So I understand if you want to keep the ball in the park, you've got to execute a pitch."

Scherzer pitched the entire night with a lead, thanks to an early big blast.

The Nationals had only one hit all night with a runner in scoring position. Fortunately, it produced all three runs. Ryan Zimmerman jumped all over Matt Cain's first-pitch curveball and sent it soaring to left field, giving his team a 3-0 lead only four batters into the contest.

"First and third right there, I'm just pretty much looking for anything I can get up in the air so I don't hit a ground ball like they want me to," said Zimmerman, who already has 15 homers to match his total from the entire 2016 season. "I'm actually looking for a fastball somewhere out over the plate, and I just reacted, honestly. It kind of just hung up there, something I could hit a fly ball to left and get the runner in from third. And I put a good swing on it."

Who knew those three runs would hold up all night? Well, actually, with Scherzer on the mound, it might have been a safe bet.

"When he's going like that," Zimmerman said, "he's one of the best in the game."