Written by Chelsea Janes at WashingtonPost.com
Through early season ups and downs, Washington Nationals Manager Dusty Baker never wavered when identifying his ace, though arguments could be made for more than one of his starters to hold that title. Max Scherzer is their ace, Baker always said, even when Scherzer had the worst ERA of any of the five in the rotation. Monday night, Scherzer beat the best team in baseball, armed with the near-untouchable stuff with which he threatens history now and then. Behind their ace, the Nationals beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1, their first win against the Cubs in five tries, their fourth straight victory overall.
In a nationally televised game played in front of 37,187 at Nationals Park, Scherzer seized complete control. Against a team that swept the Nationals a month ago in a series that raised questions about whether anyone could challenge these Cubs at all, Scherzer struck out nine of the first 10 men he faced. Against a team that scored seven earned runs against him the last time he faced them, he carried a perfect game into the sixth. Perhaps most importantly in a matchup of the two best teams in the National League, he won, and he is now 8-4.
“They got a great team over there,” Scherzer said. “They got a great lineup, and I remember that they beat my brains in last time, and I wanted to come out there and take my shot at them.”
He sent each Cubs batter back to the dugout in order the first time through the lineup, striking out eight of those nine, then nine of 10.
By the fourth inning, the Cubs had mastered contact, at least to the extent that they began to make it, though none of it was particularly dangerous. Groundballs and weak popouts carried Scherzer through the fourth and fifth unscathed, and he hit the sixth at 62 pitches.
“I knew if I get through six you got a shot [at a no-hitter],” Scherzer said. “So it was a matter of trying to get through [eighth-place hitter Addison] Russell there to get to the pitcher.”
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