Scherzer guts out five innings with bruised calf

MILWAUKEE - Max Scherzer knew he couldn't run. His labored attempt to get out of the batter's box after tapping a groundball in the top of the fifth confirmed that.

But Scherzer also knew he could pitch without suffering any ill effects from the comebacker that struck him in the left calf way back in the bottom of the first tonight at Miller Park. Perhaps nobody on the Nationals roster is as honest and forthcoming with the staff about his physical state than the ace right-hander, so Dusty Baker and Mike Maddux trusted him to stay on the mound even when thousands of fans watching back at home and even some teammates on the field had a different thought at that moment.

"Uh, get out of there," shortstop Trea Turner said afterward with a laugh. "We want him healthy. We want him to pitch later in the year. But that's the competitor he is. He's going to fight and make pitches like he's done all year. That's why his numbers are what they are. He battles, and he pitched great for us."

That he did. Scherzer didn't figure into the final decision of the Nationals' 3-2 victory over the Brewers, one made possible by a two-run rally in the top of the eighth and a narrow escape in the bottom of the ninth. But in gutting out five innings of one-run ball with a bad left leg, he earned the respect of a clubhouse that already respected him plenty and offered a window into his competitive psyche.

"It's just part of the game. I'd rather be out there competing in pain than be on the DL," Scherzer said. "For me, today was fun. Today was fun to be out there having to pitch through that. When you've got to go out there and give everything you've got, sometimes this happens and you've just got to make the best out of it."

Mind you, Scherzer said this as he stood in front of his locker with his left foot slightly raised off the ground, a few minutes before he would use the aid of crutches to walk out of the clubhouse. The Travis Shaw comebacker he took off his left leg was no simple flesh wound. This one hurt, and it will continue to hurt for at least a few more days, at which point Scherzer and the Nationals will have to decide if he can make his next scheduled start or be pushed back yet again.

But the right-hander with the 2.19 ERA and league-best 232 strikeouts acted afterward like he expects to be fine.

"Fortunately, it's just a muscle," Scherzer said. "They've got patches. These patches are miracles, so this should be pretty good pretty soon."

He does know from experience. Scherzer took a comebacker off the inside of his left knee May 15 and went down in a heap. But he stayed in that game, afterward used a patch designed to reduce swelling and made his next start with no problems.

Scherzer did appear to be something less than his best tonight after getting hit by the batted ball. His fastball velocity was down a couple notches to the 91-93 mph range. His breaking balls weren't real sharp. But he still retired the first nine batters he faced, got out of a fourth-inning jam with only one run across the plate and then pitched a scoreless fifth before finally agreeing it was best for him to come out of the game.

"They had confidence in what I'm able to tell them," he said. "That's when you have to be honest with them, both (Maddux) and (Baker), of when you can and can't go. I kept telling them that I could compete on the mound. 'Look, I'm not going to be able to run. I'm not going to give you much at the plate. But on the mound, I can compete.' And they let me keep going until that run of lefties came."

That run of lefties was the heart of the Brewers' lineup, which was due up in the bottom of the sixth in what at that point was a 1-1 game. Worried that Scherzer wouldn't be able to cover first base on a grounder to the right side, Baker made the decision to bring in reliever Oliver Pérez instead.

"We thought that that was as far as he can go, because we didn't know if he could cover first base or back up a base," Baker said. "We thought they were going to bunt on him, so we were going to make some arrangements for other people to change their assignments on a bunt. We thought that was far enough, and we turned it over to our bullpen."

Pérez gave up the tiebreaking run on a pair of walks and a freak double that bounced over Ryan Zimmerman's leap, then couldn't be cleanly handled by either Daniel Murphy or Jayson Werth. But the Nationals stormed back to tie the game and then take the lead in the top of the eighth via Michael A. Taylor's homer, Wilmer Difo's bunt single and Turner's RBI double. And then the back end of the Nats bullpen (Ryan Madson, Brandon Kintzler, Sean Doolittle) finished it off with three straight zeroes to secure the victory and ensure Scherzer's gusty effort wouldn't be wasted.

"He's a tough S.O.B., man," Doolittle said. "He gutted it out for us tonight for five innings on one leg pretty much. Not only is he physically tough, but I think what separates him from some other guys is his mental toughness and still being able to execute pitches when he's not feeling 100 percent. He almost seems to exert his will over guys and find ways to get outs and continue to get outs, even when he's not 100 percent. And that's what an ace does."