Max Scherzer might be playing a game of "can you top this?" with himself for the benefit of the Washington Nationals, because just one start after striking out 16 Milwaukee Brewers while allowing a lone hit, Scherzer threw his first career no-hitter at the Pittsburgh Pirates' expense in a 6-0 win.
Scherzer was almost perfect to the Max, retiring his first 26 batters and getting two strikes on Jose Tabata. Almost, and oh so close, but Scherzer came just a wee bit too far inside on Tabata on his seventh pitch of the at-bat at 2-2, plunking the outfield reserve to lose a shot at MLB's first perfecto since the improbable 2012 trio of perfect games spun by Philip Humber, Matt Cain and Felix Hernandez.
Defense always plays a key role in any bid for this kind of history, and Saturday's game was no exception despite a Nationals club that ranks last in the NL in Defensive Efficiency with just a .661 clip for turning balls in play into outs. The no-no-saving gem was second baseman Danny Espinosa's play to retire Pedro Alvarez and end the eighth: With the infield shifted for the pull-happy Alvarez, Espinosa had to range far to his right to field a ball that had already scooted past a diving Ian Desmond. Espinosa needed every bit of his arm strength to beat Alvarez -- and did.
The no-hitter runs Scherzer's record to 8-5 and reinforces his case to edge Pittsburgh's Gerrit Cole for the honor of starting the All-Star Game for the NL now that his ERA is down to 1.76. Run support -- something beyond Scherzer's control -- hasn’t been consistent, with the Nats scoring just 3.8 runs per game for him. It was Scherzer's sixth game this season with 10 or more strikeouts, all of them coming in his past 10 turns. With a strikeout rate of 33.5 percent during that span, he’s whiffing somebody every three at-bats. Whatever the inning he might pitch in the Midsummer Classic, pity the three or six batters he faces.
Scherzer might have made a bad first impression on his new league with his argument for adopting the DH, but suffice to say he has no other cause to regret a decision to move to the senior circuit. Now, he's not just airing the occasional grievance -- he's airing it out, and the only people with regrets belong to the 29 teams that don't get to call him their own.
Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.
