Scherzer officially Nats' pick for NL WC Game
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WASHINGTON -- Max Scherzer will start the National League Wild Card Game on Tuesday night. After hinting at it for days, manager Dave Martinez finally made the announcement on Friday. Both Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin will be available to pitch out of the bullpen with the season on the line.
“I feel fortunate to have Max Scherzer,” Martinez said, “but also Strasburg and Corbin. All hands will be on deck.”
For Martinez, the decision to start Scherzer was easy, even though the Nationals found themselves in a bit of a quandary considering their multiple enticing options to pitch the win-or-go-home game against the Brewers, who will send Brandon Woodruff to the hill. Strasburg is having one of the best and most durable seasons of his career. Corbin has been everything Washington expected when it signed him this past winter to the largest free-agent contract for a pitcher.
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But the prospect of handing Scherzer the ball with everything at stake was too tantalizing to pass up, especially after he has shown signs of rounding into his old form in his most recent outings.
“I can’t exactly say what he said to me,” Martinez joked. “But he was excited. He’s ready.”
Scherzer made just one start against Milwaukee this season, on May 6, when the Nationals were still enduring their sluggish beginning to the season. He pitched well, tossing six innings of two-run ball (one earned) with 10 strikeouts and a walk in a 5-3 loss at Miller Park.
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“Season’s on the line, I’ve pitched in these situations before, and it’s just crazy baseball,” Scherzer said. “Intensity’s out of your mind. And you’ve got to go out there and be your best and just compete as hard as you can.”
Shop for postseason gear: Scherzer was putting together perhaps the best season of a Hall of Fame-track career before injuries to his back and shoulder derailed much of his second half. His season ended without him pitching 200 innings for the first time since 2012, snapping a streak of six consecutive seasons, and without him making at least 30 starts for the first time since becoming a full-time starter in '09.
Yet Scherzer’s spectacular season will earn him consideration for the NL Cy Young Award. In his 27 starts, he posted a 2.92 ERA with 243 strikeouts (third in the NL) in 172 1/3 innings. Scherzer’s 2.46 FIP is the best in the NL and 6.5 Wins Above Replacement, according to Fangraphs, are second among NL pitchers behind only Jacob deGrom.
Most of Scherzer’s second half, however, was focused on recovering from the injuries that cost him about six weeks -- a strained rhomboid muscle in his upper right shoulder and an inflamed bursa sac in his back that forced him to make two trips to the injured list after the All-Star break. He made seven starts after coming off the IL and posted a 4.74 ERA during that span, with 54 strikeouts and eight walks.
Those uneven outings were enough to create speculation as to whether Strasburg, who will also be on regular rest for Tuesday, should start the Wild Card Game instead. But Scherzer feels he has taken huge steps forward in his two most recent outings. He recorded double-digit strikeouts in back-to-back starts with only one walk, reasons to be optimistic, even though he has yielded a combined nine runs in those 12 2/3 innings.
“I feel great. I feel sharp. I feel like I'm really built for 100 pitches right now,” Scherzer said on Tuesday night. “I feel like I'm still executing better than ever, even when you look back to the Cardinals start to [Tuesday against the Phillies], I was finishing this start stronger, even from pitch 90 on.
“So that just shows you, I'm continuing to make strides in where I'm at. And I feel really good about going forward in the playoffs.”
As for who will follow Scherzer, both Strasburg and Corbin have made it known they’re willing to pitch in relief, which should give the Nats more options instead of leaving the game in the hands of the leaky bullpen.
The Nationals won’t worry about holding someone back for a potential Game 1 of the NL Division Series in Los Angeles on Thursday before getting through Tuesday’s game first.
“The ultimate goal is to win Tuesday,” Martinez said. “But we also have to keep in mind that if we do go on, how we’re going to use those guys as well. Hopefully in my mind, Max is going to go seven-plus, we’re up, we got [Sean Doolittle], [Daniel Hudson], [Fernando] Rodney. And if we need to use [Strasburg or Corbin] for an inning or whatever, so be it.”