Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
When the Washington Nationals signed starting pitcher Max Scherzer to a seven-year, $210 million deal this past offseason, general manager Mike Rizzo took a lot of heat from baseball pundits for giving such a big contract to a 30-year old starting pitcher, especially since starting pitching was considered a strength for the Nationals. With the way Scherzer has pitched this season, it looks like the Nationals have actually gotten a bargain.
On Saturday afternoon, Scherzer threw the second no-hitter since the franchise moved to Washington D.C. In fact, he was one strike away from throwing the first perfect game in the Nationals’ existence when he clipped Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jose Tabata with an inside pitch. Tabata easily could’ve gotten out of the way of the pitch, but he chose to dip his elbow and ruin the perfect game. Scherzer ended up getting the next hitter to fly out and closed out the no-hitter allowing just the one base-runner, striking out 10 Pirates in the process.
In his previous start against the Milwaukee Brewers, Scherzer took a perfect game into the seventh inning before allowing a base hit. He finished with a complete game one-hitter, walking one and striking out 16. Scherzer ended up with a game score of 100 for his start against the Brewers and a 97 against the Pirates to become only the second pitcher since 1914 to have back-to-back starts with game scores above 95. The other was R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets in 2012 when he threw two consecutive one-hitters, finishing with game scores of 95 and 96. If you go by this formula, Scherzer just posted the best consecutive starts in MLB history.
For the season, Scherzer is 8-5 with a 1.76 ERA, but he could very easily be 12-2 with a better offense and defense supporting him. He also has allowed a miniscule .181 batting average against in 102.1 innings pitched and leads MLB with 123 strikeouts, opposed to only 14 walks. Scherzer has been as dominant as any pitcher has been in recent memory, and he has taken over the title of the best pitcher in MLB from Clayton Kershaw.
Jason Fletcher is a MLB Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google+.
