Wilson Ramos "very happy" to call all three Nationals no-hitters

Wilson Ramos is in the record books, becoming only the 14th catcher in Major League Baseball history to catch three or more no-hitters. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first ever to catch three in a 162-game span.

Right-hander Max Scherzer tossed his second no-hitter since June 20 on Saturday night in New York, striking out a career-high 17 in a 2-0 Nationals win over the Mets. Ramos also called Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter at the end of 2014.

Ramos has also called all three Nationals no-hitters and is one no-hitter away from the all-time record of four.

"Yeah, that makes me feel really happy and really good," Ramos said. "Because I know myself, everything I'm doing, it's working. It's working good. Every time I go out there, I like to put good fingers (down). I want to put zeroes on the scoreboard. That's my job. I'm very happy for it."

Ramos said the second Scherzer no-hitter was justification that his ability to call high-pressure games is validated, something he has worked on since February.

"I feel very happy right now for that," Ramos said. "Everything I like to do behind the plate, now I can say it's working. In spring training, I concentrated and worked behind the plate. Forget about offense. If I hit, I hit. But I'm going to be strong mentally behind the plate. Today, it was an amazing game for Max, to be consistent all night. His pitches were all good tonight. We stayed on the same page. That happens when you throw the ball good."

Scherzer struck out at least two hitters in five of his nine innings. He struck out the side in the seventh and eighth frames. Scherzer also struck out nine in a row before the Curtis Granderson pop-up ended the game. When did Ramos know it was possible?

"It's hard to say when I was thinking about a no-hitter late in the game," Ramos said. "The seventh inning, I was saying: 'We're not going to lose an opportunity to get another one'. He was very aggressive. His pitches were working really, really good. That was amazing for him."

But Ramos really appreciated Scherzer striking out nine consecutive hitters, something he has never experienced in his career.

"I think never before," Ramos said. "But like I say, right now I was concentrating on getting out, hitter after hitter. I was never thinking about how many guys he struck out. Now it feels amazing for him and for me because that's what I like to do. I like to call a good game. That's my job behind the plate."

"Really just trusting Willy," Scherzer said of the nine straight strikeouts. "I really felt like I had a good fastball tonight and was able to pitch off of that. Willy had a good feel for when they were looking fastball and calling off-speed and trusted him with it and when they were looking off-speed and throwing fastball. I feel like that's why I was able to generate some swings and misses there was trusting what Willy was doing and finding the right pitch in the right sequence to execute for a swing and miss."

Scherzer was hot early in the season, but then had a 0-3 run with a 6.43 ERA in August. Ramos said when Scherzer trusted his calls, he was able to get into grooves.

"I don't want to say he didn't shake me off today," Ramos said. "He did. But when he shook me off, we stayed on the same page the whole. If he shook me off with a fastball, then I was thinking that was the pitch at the moment. He had the ball. He threw it wherever he wanted. As soon as he shook off fastball, I put down slider. And that's the pitch he wanted. That's communication between me and him. Before the game, we were talking about what we wanted to do, whatever it is, let's go with that. And that's what we like to do."

Scherzer late in the game, when the at-bats got tougher, all he concentrated on was getting to his celebration with Ramos. That provided him extra focus to get through the ninth.

"It was like as soon as he catches it, go to Willie and let's do our handshake," Scherzer said smiling. "We got our little handshake before we do every game and do it any time you get a complete game, do it with Willy."