Scherzer wins early battles, Harper gets last laugh in blowout (updated)

The first five innings? They supplied great theater, a playoff-like vibe rarely found on a cold April night as Max Scherzer dueled Bryce Harper in front of a raucous crowd on South Capitol Street.

The rest of tonight's proceedings? They served as a not-so-subtle reminder of the bigger picture right now in this reborn rivalry: The Phillies mean business in 2019, and the Nationals had better get their act together real soon before this season of promise really turns south.

Behind a barrage of big hits against what has quickly become a woeful Nats bullpen, including Harper's mammoth late home run off Jeremy Hellickson, the Phillies cruised to an 8-2 victory to remain undefeated and send the Nationals into a deeper sense of early season dread.

Adding injury to insult, the Nats also saw Trea Turner break his right index finger trying to bunt in the bottom of the first, an injury that likely will sideline the starting shortstop for an extended period of time, while also seeing Matt Adams depart with back spasms after a nasty fall trying to track down a foul ball.

"It's just a bad break, is the only way to say it," Scherzer said. "But things happen. Next man in line."

Talk about a downer on a night full of drama.

A cold rain that delayed the start of the game 41 minutes didn't put a damper on emotions inside the ballpark once the proceedings got underway. If anyone was unsure what kind of crowd this would be beforehand, they found out the moment Harper's name was announced for the first time as the Phillies' No. 3 hitter.

Despite cheers from the large swatch of Phillies fans who took over the right field bleachers, the rest of the crowd drowned everything else out with the loudest chorus of boos that likely has ever been directed at any one player in the decade-plus history of this ballpark.

"I've played in some loud games. It can get pretty loud here," Ryan Zimmerman said. "Fans can do whatever they want. I don't really understand why they booed him. If I was a fan, I guess I would've cheered him. Maybe that's why, I don't know. I never understand that stuff, but it was loud."

And it didn't stop. Not during the brief video tribute the Nationals put together for Harper. Not when he stepped into the on-deck circle for the first time. Not when he stepped into the batter's box to face Scherzer for the first time.

"I didn't know what it was going to be like," Harper said. "Heard the boos. Kind of just remembered I have 45,000 people in the city of Philadelphia, and more that were screaming at their TV, cheering."

All three Harper-Scherzer showdowns produced as much intensity as you'll ever find on a Tuesday night in early April. And the hometown fans weren't disappointed with the results in the first two encounters, when Scherzer twice struck out Harper. First on a 2-2 changeup: "Nasty," Harper said. Then on a 3-2 cutter in on the hands: "Absolutely nasty," the slugger said.

The crowd erupted each time, thrilled with their three-time Cy Young Award winner, who dialed up his fastball to 97 mph twice when facing Harper.

"I was just kind of feeding off the atmosphere of the crowd," Scherzer said. "He's a great hitter, and you have to make great pitches to get him out. You saw that tonight."

But those at-bats, not to mention all the others against a deep and dangerous Philadelphia lineup, came at a cost. Scherzer needed 20 pitches to get through the first inning, all of them high-stress. He threw 19 pitches in the second, one of those a changeup to No. 8 hitter Maikel Franco that sailed into the bleachers for the game's first run. His pitch count already was up to 76 after the fourth inning, during which the Phillies scored another run when Yan Gomes couldn't handle Scherzer's breaking ball down and away against the opposing pitcher, ultimately ruled a passed ball.

And so by the time Scherzer escaped a fifth-inning jam exacerbated by Harper's double to right field off a 1-2 curveball, the Nationals ace was running on empty with a pitch count of 96. And for the second time in as many starts to begin the season, he departed with his team trailing 2-0.

"They had a good approach," Scherzer said. "Find a way to get the bat on the ball, and good things happen when you do that. And unfortunately that's bad for me."

The Nationals could do nothing offensively against Phillies No. 4 starter Zach Eflin, who retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced, then pitched out of a two-on, no-out jam in the fifth with a pair of strikeouts and a popup to second base.

By the time they finally got to the Phillies bullpen, the Nats were facing a 6-0 deficit, courtesy another big inning against a relief corps that has yet to put together an effective game in 2019. Wander Suero and Matt Grace combined to allow four runs, capped by Jean Segura's bases-loaded double and Harper's subsequent RBI single.

Anthony Rendon's two-run homer off José Álvarez in the sixth briefly brought the home crowd back to life, but that represented the entirety of the Nationals' offensive production tonight.

Harper and the Phillies? They weren't done. With the game already well in hand, the star right fielder came up to bat against Hellickson in the top of the eighth with no pressure and plenty of incentive to swing for the fences with no abandon. Which is exactly what he did, sending a 458-foot blast into the second deck in right-center.

At this point, the drama, the intensity and the boos had long since dissipated. Harper was left to flip his bat toward the home dugout, circle the bases to a roar from the remaining Philly fans and then exchange customized handshakes with his new teammates, who now own a 4-0 record.

"I was pretty fired up," he said. "I was excited. I was trying to get back to my teammates as quick as possible and do all my handshakes."

In the opposite dugout, the Nationals were left to ponder not only the scene that had just played out in front of them, not only the realization they've lost their starting shortstop for a while, but also the realization they're now 1-3 with a world of problems to solve in short order.

"Bottom line, we just have to play better," Zimmerman said. "The good thing for us is it's the fourth game. The bad thing is we haven't played like we're capable. But tomorrow's a new day."