The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—At the close of another eventful afternoon at Nationals Park, Washington general manager Mike Rizzo placed his hands around a microphone at the outset of an unusual post-game news conference and said, with a hint of a smile, “I was really rootin’ for a no-hitter today.”
Anything to change the subject, right?
Hours after the Nationals suspended closer Jonathan Papelbon for fighting with teammate Bryce Harper in the dugout a day earlier, Max Scherzer came within five outs of his second no-hitter of the season.
He shut down the Cincinnati Reds into the eighth inning while striking out 10 batters in a 5-1 victory yesterday.
“I thought he was going to do it again,” said manager Matt Williams.
“He was really special.”
Scherzer didn’t allow a hit until Tucker Barnhart singled to left field on a 1-2 count with one out in the eighth.
That came on Scherzer’s 105th pitch, and fans at the stadium rose to salute the right-hander with a standing ovation.
To that point, the Reds only had three baserunners—on walks in the first, third, and seventh innings.
“He [Barnhart] was able to put a pretty good swing on it,” said Scherzer, who no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 20 after coming within one strike of a perfect game.
Did he ponder getting no-no No. 2, which would have made him the first pitcher with two no-hitters in one regular season since Nolan Ryan in 1973?
“I thought it had the makings of it,” Scherzer replied.
Barnhart wound up scoring on Skip Schumaker’s single—the only other hit allowed by Scherzer (13-12), who left after the eighth.
In the bottom of the eighth, chants of “We want Bryce!” rang out in the stadium.
Harper, a leading NL MVP contender, was not in the lineup. Williams said that was because of Harper’s “part in the altercation” with Papelbon in Washington’s dugout during Sunday’s game.
Harper, though, said afterward he was scheduled to be off yesterday.
He entered Monday leading the league in batting average (.336), homers (41), slugging percentage (.658), on-base percentage (.467), and runs (117).
Papelbon, meanwhile, is done for the season.
He will miss four games because he was suspended by the Nationals for the episode in which he grabbed Harper’s throat, and the other three games because he dropped his appeal of a Major League Baseball ban for throwing near an opponent’s head last week.
“It’s been a very difficult 24 hours for the organization,” Williams conceded.
Elsewhere in the NL, St. Louis blanked Pittsburgh 3-0 and San Francisco edged L.A. 3-2 (12 innings).
