With 8 2/3-inning gem, Scherzer authors another magic moment

Chris Speier has watched comfortably from afar as Max Scherzer has sent Dusty Baker back to the dugout on several occasions over the last two seasons, the Nationals ace refusing to let his manager remove him from a ballgame before he's ready to be removed.

But with Baker back home in California this weekend for son Darren's high school graduation, Speier is filling in as manager. And so the potential scenario was raised to the longtime bench coach this afternoon: What would he do if he needed to have that mound conversation with Scherzer during tonight's game against the Padres?

"I'm hoping we don't get there," the soft-spoken, dry-humored Speier said. "I'm hoping for a nine-inning complete game. It may take 200 pitches."

Well, let's fast-forward to the top of the ninth inning tonight at Nationals Park. The home club held a comfortable 5-1 lead. Scherzer was still on the mound, two outs away from his first complete game of the year. His pitch count stood at 100. But he had just surrendered an infield single and then a four-pitch walk. Koda Glover was warm in the bullpen out in right field for what had just become a save situation.

And so Speier decided to make that long, slow walk to the mound. The crowd of 28,606, which had roared with delight when Scherzer was allowed to bat for himself in the bottom of the eighth, was now preparing to give the acting manager a slightly different reaction.

Fortunately, Speier recognized the magnitude of the situation. He just wanted to make sure Scherzer still felt like he had enough left in the tank to continue.

"I would have been booed like crazy if I had taken him out," Speier later admitted.

"I had told him before the inning, just knowing where my arm was at, we're at about 110 pitches maximum I really wanted to go tonight," Scherzer said. "When he came out there, I peeked up there and I saw I was at 100, so I knew I had a few more pitches to throw. And I really just said: 'Hey, it's your decision. I'm not going to fight you here. But if you're asking if I want it, I want it. I definitely want to try to go out there and get this one.'"

And so Speier retreated to the dugout as the crowd roared again with approval. The roars grew even louder when Scherzer promptly retired Wil Myers on three pitches for his 13th strikeout of the night. And when the right-hander got to a 2-2 count against Ryan Schimpf, the ballpark was ready to explode.

But that's when a slider got away from Scherzer just a touch. The pitch grazed Schimpf, who was granted 90 feet for his efforts. And now the bases were loaded, Scherzer's pitch count was 108 and Hunter Renfroe was stepping to the plate with a chance to tie the game on one swing.

And so Speier knew he had no choice but to make the move. Out went Scherzer. In came Glover.

And the ace didn't put up a fight.

"How many times in May do you really want to extend me past 110 pitches?" Scherzer said. "That's where (pitching coach Mike) Maddux and Spei, they both knew what was going on. They made the right decision. In this ballgame, considering that we're trying to play for the long run here, there's no reason for me to continue to try to fight, just to finish that game out."

Glover trotted in from the bullpen, the rookie who has ascended his way into the closer's role after two months of chaos in the ninth inning from others. He needed only four pitches to strike out Renfroe and finish the game, fully brushing aside the possibility he could have turned this one into a disaster with one bad pitch.

"You can't think like that," Glover said. "You've just got to go in aggressive like I do. You don't really think about the moment too much. You just try to get the job done."

Scherzer got the job done all night with his best performance of the season. He struck out 13, giving him 53 career double-digit strikeout games (tied with Clayton Kershaw for most among all active pitchers). He allowed only three hits, Schimpf's fourth-inning homer on a changeup at his shoelaces the only really damaging blow. He walked only one. And he kept his pitch count to a minimum, making life awfully difficult for the opposition.

"That version of Max Scherzer, that's the Cy Young version," said Padres manager Andy Green, whose team ranks near the basement of the National League in most offensive categories. "That's the guy that dominates playoff games. That's the guy that runs through the best lineups in the game. That's not an aberration. That's not like a young lineup facing an ace, even though that's what it is. That's an ace that carves through any lineup when he's throwing like that."

Scherzer entered this start having struggled in his previous outing in Atlanta, but he made some mechanical adjustments to help him get his hands up higher at the beginning of his delivery, and the end result was a perfect convergence of talent, mechanics and results.

"That's the biggest thing I can take out today: I got everything in sync," he said. "I was pounding the zone and throwing strikes and working ahead of guys. When I get to those 0-2, 1-2 counts, that's when I have success."

It didn't end with Scherzer still on the mound, celebrating with teammates after recording the 27th out of the game. But it nonetheless ranked alongside his best outings in a Nationals uniform.

"When you watch him," Speier said, "and when he's got that special ability that something really great is going to happen - striking out 20, or a no-hitter - that's the kind of stuff he had."