Scherzer OK after comebacker scare

There is much that could be said about the Nationals bullpen right now. And yet, what else can be said about that group except that it is a mess and requires nightly manipulating by Dusty Baker that occasionally works and frequently does not.

The Nationals won tonight's doubleheader finale over the Phillies, 6-5, thanks to Michael A. Taylor's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth that made up for Matt Grace and Jacob Turner blowing a lead moments earlier. And they won because the last man standing on the mound, Matt Albers, did the seemingly impossible and retired the side in the ninth inning to preserve a one-run lead.

The Nationals' last seven games all have been decided in the eighth inning or later, but let's not completely ignore what transpires before that. Certainly not what transpired in the top of the fourth of tonight's game, when Max Scherzer wound up writhing on the ground in pain as the heart rates of an entire organization and fan base went into overdrive.

Scherzer was able to crack some jokes afterward, pointing out that he entered the night worried about a blister on his throwing hand but wasn't worried about that at all after he took a 100-mph comebacker off the inside of his left knee.

"Obviously after I got hit, my blister hurt less," he said. "So that was the good news."

If the crowd of 30,137 was a nervous wreck after Scherzer went to the ground following Michael Saunders' scorched comebacker, the pitcher himself was right there with everybody else. He got to his feet quickly and tried to walk, but then went back to the ground within seconds after the pain was too much to bear.

"Once I was able to get on to it and walk on it for a second, I knew it wasn't broken," the right-hander said. "That was like my first check. Then, obviously the pain was pretty intense. I just needed to catch my breath, just let everything kind of take a minute to have everything relax. Then once I started putting weight on it, I realized I was good to go."

Scherzer's teammates couldn't quite believe what they saw.

"I thought he got shot," right fielder Bryce Harper said. "I mean, I thought it was way worse than it was."

Dusty Baker, who alongside head athletic trainer Paul Lessard rushed to the mound to check on Scherzer, wasn't immediately convinced his pitcher could (or should) continue. But there's a special trust that has been established between this manager and this ace, each willing to tell the truth to the other and then respond accordingly.

And so, tempting as it was to play it safe and remove his starter with 57 pitches and nobody out in the fourth, Baker let Scherzer stay in the game.

"I looked him in the face, and Max said he was fine," Baker explained. "I said: 'Well, it's gonna get stiff.' And he goes: 'I'll let you know if it gets stiff.' But Max, he's a man. He's a warrior. The average guy would've just taken it in, but Max, he wanted to pitch. That motivated the other guys, to see how badly he wanted it."

Scherzer may have stayed in the game, but it took him a while to find his rhythm again. He gave up two runs before completing the fourth inning, then retreated to the batting tunnel to jog and exercise in an attempt to keep his knee from stiffening up while his teammates were batting.

When Scherzer returned to the mound for the top of the fifth, his body coursing with adrenaline and emotion, something special happened. He struck out César Hernández on three pitches. Then he struck out Odùbel Herrera on three pitches. Then he struck out Aaron Altherr on three pitches.

One inning. Nine pitches. Three strikeouts. That's called an "immaculate inning," and that had only been done once before by a Nationals pitcher (Jordan Zimmermann in 2011).

"I didn't realize it until I went back into the video room and they were like: 'Did you know?'" Scherzer said. "That was the first time I had done that, so that was pretty sweet."

Scherzer labored some more in the sixth, allowing a leadoff double to Saunders and then an RBI single to Andrés Blanco. He finished the inning with his pitch count at 105, the game tied 3-3, left to watch the rest of the drama unfold from the clubhouse and training room.

After the game, he was walking around with no limp, his left knee slightly swollen but not grotesquely so. He said he'll be getting ice and other treatment around the clock for the next five days before he takes the mound again, and expressed no doubts he'll be taking the mound again the next time his turn comes up in the rotation.

There's plenty else for the Nationals to worry about right now. Scherzer is making sure they don't have to worry about him.

"When you foul a ball off your calf, it's no fun for me," shortstop Trea Turner said. "I can only imagine how he pitched. But he bounced back from it. He pitched really well. And that was big for us. We needed him to go deep in the game."