Max Scherzer kept rolling Friday night, and the Washington Nationals followed his lead.
The well-compensated ace of Washington’s staff pitched another gem against the Philadelphia Phillies to lead the Nationals to a sixth straight victory, 2-1. He even scored the go-ahead run after singling in the sixth.
After a rough opening month, the Nationals have clawed their way back into first place in the National League East with a few blowouts but a number of close games. With Friday’s victory, they improved to 10-1 since April 28 in games decided by two runs or fewer.
THE RUNDOWN: Just as we all expected, this one was a good old-fashioned pitchers’ duel between Max Scherzer and Sean O’Sullivan. Scherzer gave up a run in the top of the second inning, and O’Sullivan was on the wrong end of a Bryce Harper homer in the bottom of the frame. Besides those blemishes, however, each was largely in control. The Nationals finally pulled ahead in the sixth on Ian Desmond’s double off the center-field wall. Scherzer (more on him later) and Drew Storen took it from there, with the closer picking up his 13th save of the season.
THE HIGHLIGHT: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Harper hit a home run on Friday. It was National League-leading 16th of the season, and his 11th in 13 games. This one, in many ways, was typical. Harper fell behind 0-2, fouled off two pitches and took a ball outside. Then he crushed the next pitch, a fastball up and out of the zone, to left field, just clearing the fence. It was his third first-inning home run against O’Sullivan in their three meetings so far this season.
STAR OF THE GAME: I might have written this here before, but I don’t believe any one player is truly worth $210 million. If you were going to spend that on someone, however, Scherzer’s as good as any. The right-hander has been consistently dominant in his first two months with the Nationals, and Friday was among his best starts of the year. He held the Phillies to four hits and a lone run over eight innings, with six strikeouts and one walk. And oh yeah, he also singled and scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, sprinting home from first base on a double. In nine starts for Washington, he has allowed one earned run or fewer seven times and pitched into the eighth inning all but once.
SEE ALSO: Tanner Roark in line to start for Nationals, Anthony Rendon progressing
THE TAKEAWAY: Nothing came of this situation Friday night, but I think it’s important to note and keep in mind as the season wears on. In the sixth inning, the Phillies intentionally walked Harper with first base unoccupied and two outs. Fine. Smart, probably, given the tear he’s been on. But that brought up Ryan Zimmerman, a career .280 hitter in high-leverage situations and one of the best clutch hitters in the game today, according to at least one advanced metric by FanGraphs.com. Zimmerman grounded out harmlessly to third base in this instance, but his presence in the lineup can’t be overstated. Several people have asked me recently why any team pitches to Harper. Zimmerman is why. His presence behind Harper is an oft-overlooked cog in this Nationals’ lineup, even when it doesn’t work out for them.
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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