Nationals' Max Scherzer named NL Player of the Week

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer has been named the National League Player of the Week presented by W.B. Mason for the period ending April 15th.
In two starts, Scherzer posted a 2-0 record while allowing two earned runs over 16.0 innings pitched to claim his fourth career Player of the Week Award, last taking home the award for the period ending October 4, 2015 in his first season with the Nationals. The three-time Cy Young Award winner tallied 21 strikeouts and issued just one free pass along with three hits in his pair of outstanding starts last week. Scherzer paced the Majors in innings pitched and strikeouts, and was one of four NL hurlers to register two wins (also: San Diego's Joey Lucchesi; Pittsburgh's Ivan Nova; and Philadelphia's Yacksel Ríos). Max is the second Nationals player to earn weekly honors this season, following outfielder Adam Eaton in the first week of the 2018 campaign.
On April 9th against the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park, Scherzer tossed his fifth career complete-game shutout and the first of the 2018 season. The five-time All-Star logged 10 strikeouts, did not permit a walk and surrendered just two hits to lead the Nationals to a 2-0 victory over Atlanta. It was the 19th outing of his career in which he registered at least 10 strikeouts and did not allow an earned run. Those 19 starts are tied for ninth all-time, and second among active Major Leaguers, trailing only Clayton Kershaw (23) of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the second start of his award-winning week, the 33-year-old veteran earned his third win of the season with 7.0 innings of two-run ball against the Colorado Rockies. The hard-throwing right-hander retired his final 20 batters in a row, and limited the Rockies to just one hit and two walks while recording 11 punchouts. For the third time this season, and the 67th time of his storied career, the 11th overall selection in the 2006 MLB Draft totaled at least 10 strikeouts in a single contest. Since making his Major League debut in 2008, Scherzer paces all Major League hurlers in games with at least 10 punchouts. In addition, the Missouri native is the 13th pitcher in MLB history to record at least 10 strikeouts in three of the Club's first 15 games of a season.

Five-time All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (.417, 8 R, 4 HR, 8 RBI) of the Arizona Diamondbacks led his team to a 4-2 record last week. Goldschmidt notched at least one hit and run scored in each contest and tallied three multi-hit efforts. Additionally, Arizona's slugger enters play today having homered in four of his last five games. Other noteworthy performances last week included closer Brad Hand (4 SV, 0.00 ERA, 4.0 IP, 7 SO), Lucchesi (2-0, 0.75 ERA, 12.0 IP, 17 SO) and outfielder José Pirela (.452, 7 R, 6 XBH, 7 RBI) of the Padres; backstop Francisco Cervelli (.500, 4 XBH, 8 RBI, 1.000 SLG) of the Pittsburgh Pirates; infielder Javier Báez (6 R, 4 HR, 10 RBI, .900 SLG) of the Chicago Cubs; and All-Star starting pitcher Carlos Martínez (1-0, 0.69 ERA, 13.0 IP, 15 SO) and José Martínez (.435, 4 2B, 7 RBI) of the St. Louis Cardinals.
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Max Scherzer will be awarded a watch courtesy of Rockwell.