Nationals ace Max Scherzer throws his second no-hitter of season
NEW YORK – Max Scherzer says he can get even better.
Imagine that.
The Washington Nationals ace threw one of the most dominant games in baseball history – pitching his second no-hitter of the season and striking out a team-record 17 – and then vowed he wasn’t done.
“I still have room for improvement,” he said.
Try telling that to the N.L. East champion New York Mets after Scherzer totally shut them down in a 2-0 win Saturday night that completed a doubleheader sweep.
“He was great, we were bad,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “So when you pitch as good as he does, it’s tough to take good swings. He made all the pitches he had to make. He was very, very good.”
Only one batter reached base against Scherzer, and that came when third baseman Yunel Escobar bounced a throw for an error on Kevin Plawecki’s leadoff grounder in the sixth inning.
No one came close to a hit. Scherzer struck out nine straight batters before Curtis Granderson lofted an easy popup to Escobar to end it on his 109th pitch.
The All-Star righty became the sixth pitcher to throw two no-hitters in a year and the first since Roy Halladay in 2010 – the former Phillies ace had one in the regular season and another in the playoffs.
“These things are special,” Scherzer said. “To do it twice in one season, my gosh, it doesn’t seem possible.”
Working quickly on a brisk, blustery night at Citi Field, Scherzer (14-12) added to the no-hitter he threw against Pittsburgh on June 20, when he came within one strike of a perfect game before hitting Jose Tabata.
Johnny Vander Meer, who pitched two in a row, Nolan Ryan, Virgil Trucks and Allie Reynolds also threw a pair in the same season.
“To throw a no-hitter sometimes it takes a little luck,” Scherzer said. “I was able to execute all four of my pitches whether I was behind in the count or ahead in the count.”
The 17 strikeouts tied Ryan for the most in a no-hitter, STATS said. Overall, the teams combined for 35 strikeouts, a big league record for a nine-inning game – the previous mark was 31 set by Texas and Seattle in 1997.
For good measure, Scherzer also outhit the Mets, lining a single off ace Matt Harvey.
The Mets lost their fifth in a row, having dropped the opener 3-1. The skid cost them home-field advantage in the N.L. Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
New York and Los Angeles are among four teams in major league history to make the playoffs after getting no-hit twice in one season, according to STATS. The others were the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010 and 1917 Chicago White Sox, who won the World Series.