In May 2013, then-Tiger Max Scherzer was a few months away from his first of three career Cy Young Awards. Twice that month, he faced off against a young righty, Corey Kluber, then with the Indians. One season later, Kluber won his first of two career AL Cy Young Awards.

The battle of these starting pitchers did not disappoint in Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium. The game had it all: a pitchers' duel and extra innings, but ultimately, a 4-3 loss for the Nationals.

• Box score

“You always want to face the best, because that's how you measure yourself,” Scherzer said. “Any time you can go out there and have success against great teams and great pitchers, you remember that. So for me, I don't want to say I get extra amped up because I'm always amped up no matter what start it is, but you remember things more when there's more to it.”

• Notes: Soto back in RF; Bell an Ambassador

Scherzer wasted no time chasing history during his seventh start of the season, moving up the all-time strikeouts leaderboard to No. 20 and passing Mike Mussina (2,832). Scherzer recorded 14 strikeouts on Saturday, a season high and his most since June 30, 2019. The 14 also represented the most punchouts an opposing pitcher has collected at Yankee Stadium since 2009.

“Obviously, it's pretty cool to join that club,” Scherzer said. “It's tough for me to really put that in perspective. I think that's more for other people. I think it's more important to hear what other guys think it means.”

Scherzer allowed just two hits in his 7 1/3 innings, including a solo home run from Kyle Higashioka, his eighth homer allowed this season.

"Max is a guy that's going to come after you early and get that first-pitch strike,” said Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge. “From there, he's got some wipeout stuff and he really hit us a lot with those sliders off the plate. They come in looking like a fastball around and then just fall right off. He had our numbers with that. But it's not over 'til it's over. We were able to get to that bullpen and eventually get the win."

Daniel Hudson came in to relieve Scherzer after 109 pitches and continued to hold the Yankees at bay with a strikeout and a groundout to end the eighth.

The bullpen had been a bright spot for the Nationals, who had allowed just nine runs in the eighth and ninth innings coming into Saturday’s game, the lowest in MLB.

However, Brad Hand followed Hudson and was unable to get the job done, issuing a walk to DJ LeMahieu to start the ninth. Two outs later, the lefty allowed back-to-back singles that tied the game at 2.

“I just had a tough time commanding the fastball there early,” said Hand, who snapped a 24-game streak of consecutive saves in opportunities. “[I was] falling behind guys basically that whole inning. I started to feel a little bit better as that inning went on; it just mechanically was a little bit off.”

Save blown for just the second time this season, the Nats headed to extras.

Victor Robles entered the batter’s box to start the 10th and moved Andrew Stevenson -- who started on second base -- to third on a single to right field. Trea Turner then drove home the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly.

Hand headed back out to the mound to start the 10th and allowed a game-tying RBI single to Mike Ford. Reliever Kyle Finnegan closed out the 10th.

A three-up three-down top of the 11th proved the final inning for Washington. After moving to a five-man infield in the bottom of the frame with the bases loaded, Tanner Rainey coaxed Gleyber Torres into a soft dribbler that Rainey couldn't field in time, and the Yankees walked off.

“It was a tough one,” said Washington manager Davey Martinez, of his team’s 16th loss. “We caught some bad breaks there. That's the beauty of the game: Sometimes you win games like this and sometimes you fight back and things just don't happen your way.”