The crowd sighed when Max Scherzer turned left, walking from the mound after just 12 pitches at Nationals Park on Friday night. Scherzer threw a fastball to Brandon Belt in the first inning, felt a tweak in his right groin, then paced a bit before crouching into a stretch. Manager Dave Martinez and Paul Lessard, the Washington Nationals’ head athletic trainer, jogged out to check on the ace. Scherzer fired one more ball to catcher Yan Gomes and was done.
After a 1-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants, Scherzer revealed that an MRI exam showed inflammation, not a muscle strain. He called that the best-case scenario and declared himself day-to-day.
“I was pretty confident that this was very mild,” Scherzer said. “I could feel it on one pitch, and that’s where I knew I didn’t blow through it. Even in that warmup pitch, the second time: ‘Hey, I didn’t blow through it. I got something here. I can only make this worse if I continue to pitch.’ So going into the clubhouse I was frustrated as hell to get out, but there was nothing I could do about it.”
“It was a lot better news than I thought,” Martinez added of Scherzer’s diagnosis. “I thought it was a muscle pull in his groin, and it turned out not to be that. But we’re still not out of the woods.”
The early exit left 26 outs for the bullpen, further complicating a tough series with the first-place San Francisco Giants. And the Nationals (25-34) fell despite an excellent showing for an odd group of relievers. Paolo Espino replaced Scherzer, threw 50 pitches and yielded a solo homer to Buster Posey in the fourth. From there, Kyle McGowin, Wander Suero, Ryne Harper and Sam Clay combined to retire the final 16 Giants. But Anthony DeSclafani worked a shutout for San Francisco, holding the Nationals to two hits and allowing just one runner past first base.
DeSclafani was helped by Michael Tauchman robbing Juan Soto of a home run in the seventh. Tauchman ran to the left field fence, leaped and pulled the flyball — what would have been a game-tying shot — back into play. Soto put his hands on his helmet and laughed. Otherwise, DeSclafani handled the Scherzer-less Nationals on his own. Martinez could only praise his bullpen.
“They were outstanding. What a job they did,” Martinez said. “I was pulling for us to get just two runs ’cause they held it together.”
The series began Friday because Thursday’s game was postponed by inclement weather. Washington was already preparing to cover 14 innings of Saturday’s split doubleheader. Scherzer’s two-batter start will make that especially difficult. Espino’s pitch total was his second highest of the year. McGowin threw 20, Suero 12 and Harper 24 across two innings. Then Clay logged 12 pitches in the ninth.
Erick Fedde will return from the coronavirus-related injured list to start the first leg of Saturday’s doubleheader. The Nationals will use Joe Ross or another batch of relievers in the other game. They will be allowed to carry a 27th man for the day and probably will choose a pitcher to deepen a taxed bullpen. Harper could be demoted to make room for Fedde yet be kept on hand and used as that extra player.
“What’s funny about this whole thing,” Martinez said of the relievers who pitched Friday, “the minute I told those guys, ‘Great job, way to go’ . . . the first thing that comes out of their mouth is ‘I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.’ ”
The Nationals already are missing starter Stephen Strasburg, who is on the 10-day injured list with nerve irritation in his neck. With him out and Patrick Corbin, Jon Lester and Ross struggling to find a rhythm, the Nationals have needed Scherzer to dominate. For the most part, he has. He entered Friday with a 2.22 ERA in 77 innings. He has started seven of the Nationals’ 25 wins. He has been their only metronome.
Scherzer and Ross are the only pitchers who have not missed a start in 2021. And before 2019, when Scherzer was sidelined for six weeks by back and shoulder strains, he had made 30 or more appearances for 10 straight seasons. He is in the last year of a seven-year, $210 million contract and nearing his 37th birthday.
But in mid-June, with less than seven weeks to the trade deadline, with the Nationals having played themselves into a sizable hole, the stakes of any setback are plain: A lot rides on what Scherzer felt in that first inning and how he feels in the coming days.
“With these leg injuries, it’s usually the outside part of my right-side hamstring, when I’m dealing with this from time to time,” Scherzer said before reiterating that his warmup was normal, showing no signs of a groin issue. “I didn’t have any problems. And so this kind of just came out of the blue. Look, it happened. Fortunately it’s not worse than what it is.”
