Stealin’ and dealin’: Scherzer fuels Nats
Shutout, rare stolen base bedevil Braves
WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer’s fifth big league shutout was all well and good. His 10 strikeouts and zero walks Monday were terrific, too.
The most memorable part of the night for the two-time reigning National League Cy Young Award winner as he led the Nationals past the Atlanta Braves 2-0 to end Washington’s five-game skid and get the team back to .500?
His first stolen base since high school.
“Finally! I’ve been yelling at Matt Williams, and I’ve been yelling at Dusty Baker, like, ‘Let me go!’” he said, referring to former Washington managers.
“There’s obviously situations where I feel like I’m fast enough,” Scherzer said with a grin.
Then, taking a playful jab at former teammate Jayson Werth, Scherzer continued with this punch line: “If J-dub can steal a base, so can I.”
On the mound, Scherzer (2-1) made a slight tweak with the way he holds the ball, making his sure his fingers were on top and not on its side, and didn’t let the Braves push a runner beyond first base.
Atlanta only produced two singles, by Kurt Suzuki in the second and Nick Markakis in the fifth, and neither advanced.
Even Scherzer got farther than that: He swiped second after singling off reliever Peter Moylan in the seventh.
Howie Kendrick delivered all the offense Washington needed with a two-run double off Julio Teheran (01) in the first inning.
As Scherzer spoke to reporters afterward, a base sat to his right on the red carpet near his locker. Rookie manager Dave Martinez presented it to the 33-year-old righty — either as a keepsake or a prank, depending on who you asked.
“Honestly, I knew he was going to do it. We’ve talked about it for a week now. He’s gung-ho. He loves to play the game,” Martinez said. “We talked, I said, ‘Hey, if a guy plays behind you and you think you’ve got a chance. … But please, don’t get hurt sliding.’
“He said ‘I’ve got the best pop-up slide in baseball.’ And he showed it.”
He’s got a pretty good pitching repertoire, too. This was his ninth complete game in 299 major league starts, and he needed only 102 pitches, a far more efficient outing than his previous time on the mound: He threw 110 over five innings in a 7-1 loss at Atlanta on April 4.
Scherzer figured Monday’s success was due in part to Atlanta’s penchant for swinging early in counts, making for short at-bats.
“He put pitches where he wanted to,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said, noting that Scherzer was able to throw his cutter “to some spots where we didn’t have a chance to hit it.”
By the end, Scherzer still was reaching back for 95 mph pitches, finishing things with strikeouts of pinch hitter Charlie Culberson and Ender Inciarte.