Max Scherzer Throws No-Hitter in Near Perfect Game
20 Jun, 2015
Just one strike from a perfect game, Max Scherzer saw it slip away with a misplaced slider. Or, some thought, a misplaced elbow.
Scherzer lost his bid in agonizing fashion, plunking a batter with two outs in the ninth inning before finishing off a no-hitter Saturday in the Washington Nationals’ 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Pinch-hitter Jose Tabata was all that stood between Scherzer and pitching’s ultimate achievement. Tabata fouled off three 2-2 deliveries, then seemed to slightly drop his left elbow and got nicked.
Scherzer immediately grimaced as the ball ricocheted to the ground. The crowd at Nationals Park seemed stunned, too, and surely many wondered whether Tabata leaned into the 86 mph pitch with his elbow protector to get hit.
“He tried to throw me a slider inside,” Tabata said. “The slider, no breaking. I stayed right there and it got me.”
“That’s my job. I got to get on base whatever the situation,” he said.
Scherzer came within one strike of throwing the 22nd perfect game in major league history since 1900.
If anything, Scherzer’s teammates seemed to take the near-miss harder than he did.
“I got down into a squat and just, I don’t know, I wanted to cry,” right fielder Bryce Harper said. “To be able to see a perfect game, be a part of that, would’ve been awesome.”
Said Nationals manager Matt Williams: “He hit him with the baseball. It’s difficult when that happens.”
Scherzer (8-5) retired Josh Harrison on a deep fly to left for the final out and was swallowed up by jubilant Nationals near the mound.
The 30-year-old righty struck out 10 in his second straight dominant performance, and was cheered by a crowd of 41,104.
In his previous start, Scherzer took a perfect game into the seventh at Milwaukee and finished with a one-hitter and 16 strikeouts. The lone hit was a leadoff single by Carlos Gomez just beyond reach of Rendon, who was playing second base.
Scherzer turned in perhaps the most magnificent consecutive starts in the majors since Johnny Vander Meer pitched back-to-back no-hitters for Cincinnati in 1938.
Scherzer threw his third career shutout. He had one in 219 lifetime starts before these two in a row.
Signed to a $210 million, seven-year contract in the offseason after leaving Detroit, the 2013 AL Cy Young winner pitched the second no-hitter in Nationals’ history. Jordan Zimmermann threw one against the Marlins last year to end the regular season.
Scherzer threw 106 pitches, 82 for strikes. He was throwing fastballs in the upper 90s and used a wicked slider in lowering his ERA to 1.76.
AP
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