It’s been 15 years since the last time a major league pitcher tossed 20 strikeouts in a game.
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Washington’s ace improved to 4-2 on the year, throwing for 20 strikeouts and making batters swing and miss 33 times. So how many years we’ve been playing this game? Johnson’s 2001 outing eventually went to extra innings, but he accomplished the feat in nine. The Tigers only managed six hits off him, but two of them were solo homers by Jose Iglesias and Martinez. The ex-Washington pitcher got a nice round of applause when he came to bat in the third inning.
“Tonight was an emotional game”, said Scherzer, who spent five seasons in Detroit, including 2013, when he won the American League Cy Young Award.
Wood’s 20-strikeout performance in 1998 featured some of nastiest pitches, including the final breaking ball that sealed his 20th punchout.
He struck out the side in the eighth inning to a standing ovation. He returned for the ninth and struck out Miguel Cabrera and Justin Upton, but not before giving up a lead-off home run to J.D. Martinez and allowing the tying run on base. Wood punctuated his tweet with a simple hashtag assessment of Scherzer’s stuff: #Filthy. Needing strikeouts more than ever before Wednesday evening, Scherzer struck out catcher McCann looking at a fastball.
Nick Castellanos, who was given the day off despite hitting home runs in the first two games of the series, never got an opportunity to pinch hit, and ended the game in the on-deck circle. Scherzer, on the other hand, pounded the zone (or at least its very near proximity) on the vast majority of his pitches, yet hitters still couldn’t intercept the baseball.
Harper tied a major league record by walking six times in a loss at the Chicago Cubs that capped a four-game sweep.
Then on Wednesday night, Scherzer took the mound against his former team in the series finale and made history.
The Nationals are leading the National League East.
Murphy had an RBI single off Zimmermann in the first to make it 1-0 as he drove in Anthony Rendon, who had doubled and gone to third on a hard single by Harper.
Zimmermann allowed three runs over seven innings in his return to Nationals Park.
“Because 20 is just an unbelievable number”, said Scherzer, whose previous career high was the 17 whiffs he recorded in his no-hitter against the New York Mets last October. “I respect and admire how they go about their game”.
Zimmermann briefly backed out and tipped his helmet in appreciation, then became Scherzer’s sixth strikeout, going down swinging on a curveball.
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ORIOLES 9, TWINS 2 (at Minneapolis) – Mark Trumbo hit two home runs and Baltimore hit back-to-back homers for the third straight game in a victory over Minnesota.
