How many times can you put “max scherzer” into Google? Nats fans know today that the answer is: until we know.
Many got the word that Max Scherzer, the scheduled Game 5 starter, was a late scratch on their way to Nationals Park on Sunday.
At least one of us, ahem, tall guy, bald, wears glasses, was wearing a Scherzer T-shirt to mark the occasion, of the three-time Cy Young winner pitching the biggest game of his career.
Not sure it would have mattered, given the offense’s troubles scoring runs.
Washington scored one again on Sunday, making it three for the weekend.
Nats manager Davey Martinez, after saying I don’t know as many times as he could to questions about Scherzer on a conference call with reporters on Monday, talked about his team’s struggles at the plate.
“You know, when I look back and watching, we’re missing our pitches, one. I want us to be a little bit more aggressive on the fastballs. Also, two, we’re facing some really good pitchers,” Martinez said.
I ran the numbers, based on exit velos, and the number of hard-hit balls, which MLB defines as batted balls with exit velos of 95 mph or more, was actually consistent from the wins in Games 1 and 2 in Houston and the losses in Games 3, 4 and 5 in DC.
The Nats had eight hard-hit balls in Game 1, nine in Game 2, eight in Game 3, nine in Game 4 and nine in Game 5.
The difference: results.
Just results.
The nine hard-hit balls on Sunday included a 107.7-mph lineout by Trea Turner, a 105.4-mph forceout off the bat of Howie Kendrick, a 102.4-mph groundout from Turner, a 101.7-mph Juan Soto lineout.
“I want these guys to just relax and just try to stay in the middle of the field and put the ball in play,” Martinez said. “If you look back, we had some pretty good at-bats yesterday. We hit the ball hard. I talked about Trea specifically. Had nothing to show for it, but he hit the ball pretty good three times.
“So, just keep working good at-bats,” Martinez said. “This will turn around. Keep working good at-bats. Like I said, one guy gets on, walk, whatever, the next guy, and just keep that train going.”
As for Scherzer: there’s no news.
Martinez was noncommittal as to his ace’s possible availability for a Game 7.
“You know, right now my focus is on Game 6. We’ve got to treat that as Game 7 right now,” Martinez said. “There won’t be a Game 7 if we can’t get a Game 6. So, our focus is winning tomorrow and go 1-0 and go from there.”
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
