Scherzer shows he's "the guy" in latest dominant performance

Jose Lobaton doesn't get very many opportunities to catch Max Scherzer. He's only been behind the plate with the Nationals' $210 million right-hander eight times in two seasons. But, boy, does he savor those opportunities, especially when they come in particularly big games like tonight's 4-0 win over the Orioles.

"He's in the moment," Lobaton said. "He wants to show that he's the guy. I love that. I love that."

Scherzer most definitely was "the guy" tonight. With his team mired in a four-game losing streak, his bullpen running on fumes after a two-week stretch of over-usage and an imposing Orioles lineup in the other dugout capable of changing the entire complexion of a game with one swing, Scherzer rose to the occasion.

His final line: eight innings, two hits, zero runs, zero walks, 10 strikeouts. Oh, and he did it all in a scant 95 pitches.

"That's what aces do," manager Dusty Baker said. "He shut down a very high-powered offense. ... Boy, we needed that so badly."

Scherzer has delivered plenty of big-time performances before. There are, of course, his two no-hitters last season. His 20-strikeout game earlier this year. Nine games in which he has struck out at least 10 batters without walking anybody, a mark bested in the last two seasons only by Clayton Kershaw.

There was some extra juice to this one, though, because of the circumstances. The Nationals needed this game. But for the vast majority of the night, they were clinging to a 1-0 lead, offering their ace no wiggle room.

"There's zero margin for error, and every pitch has got to be at its best," Scherzer said. "And you can't just float anything in there. Everything has got to be full-throttle. With that lineup, you make one mistake, they're going to hit it 450 feet. So it's one of those things that every pitch you throw has got to be well-executed."

Just about every one of his 95 offerings indeed was well-executed. Only two of the 26 Baltimore batters he faced reach base: Adam Jones, who doubled in the fourth, and Mark Trumbo, who singled in the eighth.

He struck out six of the game's first eight batters. And he averaged fewer than 11 pitches per inning most of the night, a remarkable display of efficiency given how many strikeouts he recorded along the way.

"I looked up in, I think, the seventh or eighth inning, and he had like 70-something pitches," center fielder Trea Turner said. "And I was like, 'Whoa!' "

Said Scherzer: "I really took it upon myself: 'Hey, I've got to pitch deep into this ballgame. I've got to be efficient. I can't be out there walking guys. I've got to find a way to get to the seventh, eighth inning tonight.' And that's something I really take pride in, of essentially doing that, being able to collect some strikeouts with no walks."

Scherzer's best work may well have come in the top of the eighth. With the Nationals still holding a 1-0 lead - they didn't add their three insurance runs until the bottom of that frame - he surrendered the leadoff single to Trumbo, then let him steal second. But with the tying run in scoring position, Scherzer struck out Jonathan Schoop and Matt Wieters, then got J.J. Hardy to fly out to deep center field.

The sellout crowd of 39,722, many of them wearing orange and rooting for the visitors to rally, came to life throughout that inning, and the man on the mound fed off the energy.

"I just had emptied the tanks in the eighth, and gave everything I got there in the eighth," Scherzer said. "The O's fans started making noise there in the eighth, and that really kind of ticked me off. When they're sitting out there cheering at our park, I didn't like that."