The Tigers made a late push in the ninth, with a leadoff home run from J.D. Martinez and a base hit from Victor Martinez (the only Tiger with multiple hits against Scherzer and the only starter who did not strike out) to put the tying run on, but Scherzer returned to form to put them away. One of Detroit’s two homers on Wednesday came on the fastball, but nonetheless, the pitch was a clear strength for Scherzer, who threw it for strikes (51 of 62) and got plenty of swings and misses on it (18, a season high).
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The former Tiger was raring to go Wednesday in Washington, striking out a record 20 batters in nine innings during Detroit’s 3-2 loss. The only other people to do so are Roger “The Rocket” Clemens, who accomplished the feat twice in 1986 and again in 1996 while playing for the Boston Red Sox and Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs, who struck out 20 Houston Astros batters in 1998.
“That’s some serious company”. Scherzer went 82-35 in five seasons with the Tigers from 2010-14 and won the AL Cy Young Award in 2013.
“Tonight, at the end of the night, was a special night”, Scherzer said.
Miguel Cabrera, the reigning American League batting champion, struck out three times in four at-bats against Scherzer.
The Detroit Tigers had their best pitcher on the mound, their former Triple Crown victor back in the lineup and their scuffling star breaking through a protracted slump. “I think this will be the only time I’ll talk about giving up two home runs and have this big a smile on my face”.
In the seventh, with Washington leading 2-1 and one out and runners on second and third following consecutive hits, and with Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” blaring over the PA system in between pitches, Nats Park roared when Scherzer punched out James McCann and Anthony Gose to end the threat and reach 15 K’s. Needing strikeouts more than ever before Wednesday evening, Scherzer struck out catcher McCann looking at a fastball.
Listen to a montage of all 20 strikeouts below. He threw 119 pitches during the complete game.
Justin Bour homered in the Miami Marlins’ 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers and home runs from Salvador Perez and Kendrys Morales saw the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 7-3.
Granted, he also has 66 strikeouts in 52 innings, which should allay any potential concerns.
Zimmermann allowed three runs over seven innings in his return to Nationals Park.
“I just went out there and tried to execute [my fastball] and throw the slider off of that, and it worked”, Scherzer said.
Scherzer allowed six hits in the historic outing, in some ways falling short of the dominance he exhibited on October 3 last season, when he amassed 17 strikeouts in a no-hitter against the Mets.
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Zimmermann briefly backed out and tipped his helmet in appreciation, then became Scherzer’s sixth strikeout victim, going down swinging on a curveball.
