The former Washington legend allowed one run in an abbreviated start in his return from the injured list.
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As the Washington Nationals reminisced on a piece of their history Monday night with Max Scherzer on the mound at Nationals Park, the current iteration of the team was stopped in its tracks, suffering a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Nationals had chances but failed to get the big hit, going 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Washington dropped back to one game above .500 with the trade deadline — which might determine its fate for the rest of the season — now less than a week away.
“It just felt like a night where we had opportunities and just couldn’t capitalize,” Manager Blake Butera said. “It’s frustrating doing that when the pitching was as good as it was for us tonight.”
The focus at the start of the game was on Scherzer and his homecoming. In Washington, he will always be cherished for his contributions during his 6½ seasons with the team. The team’s usual birthday shoutouts on the scoreboard ended by wishing Scherzer a happy 42nd, but current Nationals Foster Griffin and Jacob Young — who also celebrated birthdays Monday — were not mentioned.
Scherzer’s current teammates understood his place in Nationals fans’ hearts, too. They let him take the mound alone for the bottom of the first, remaining in the dugout so he could have a moment on the mound where he made so many memories. Scherzer tipped his hat just slightly to the crowd, then got to work.
Scherzer isn’t the same pitcher who won back-to-back Cy Young Awards and led the Nationals through the magical 2019 World Series run. He has battled injuries over the last four seasons, including most recently back spasms, which had held him out since June 14. Before Monday, he had made just six starts this season, pitching to a 10.23 ERA.
But he still is Scherzer. And that means he’s still a competitor, even when he isn’t in his prime.
In the first inning, James Wood and Luis García Jr. hit back-to-back singles, and CJ Abrams walked to load the bases with one out. But Scherzer was able to escape the logjam, striking out Dylan Crews and retiring Daylen Lile.
An inning later, Scherzer wasn’t as lucky, but he still minimized the damage. Nasim Nuñez beat out a weak groundball to third for his 15th infield single of the year. Wood followed with a walk, and García’s double got Washington on the board before José Tena grounded out to Scherzer.
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In the third inning, the Nationals again attacked Scherzer. They took him deep into counts, driving his already limited pitch count up quickly. With one out, Scherzer and Lile battled to 12 pitches before the right-hander struck him out on a low curveball. Scherzer then looked toward the visitor dugout and shrugged, as if to say that’s all he had.
He walked off the mound a moment later, the crowd again giving him a standing ovation. This time, he tipped his cap fully, taking in the moment of what could be his last time pitching at Nationals Park. Scherzer is on a one-year, $3 million contract, and his future beyond that is unknown.
“It’s special,” Scherzer said. “I’ve got a lot of great memories here in D.C. I wanted to show the fans respect as well, because they were cheering the whole time, even when I was warming up.”
As Nationals fans took in a part of their history, the current club still had work to do. Eddy Yean, in just his fourth major league appearance, served as the opener. He flew through the top part of the order, recording seven outs on 13 pitches. Then Luis Urías cracked a first-pitch homer to center, and back-to-back doubles by Myles Straw and Ernie Clement gave the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.
Andrew Alvarez took over from there to pitch a bulk of the game. It wasn’t a clean outing. He fell behind often and walked three batters but managed to get through 4⅓ innings with just one run allowed, an RBI single from Straw in the fourth.
“The walks are obviously killing me,” said Alvarez, who was optioned after the game. “I think it’s definitely a small step forward. … I think it’s a little bit better than how it’s been going.”
Andrés Chaparro hit a first-pitch solo shot in the fifth inning, the first pinch-hit home run of his career, to get the Nationals within one. The Blue Jays’ bullpen shut the offense down from there, allowing a total of four hits and a walk in 6⅓ innings. The Nationals had one final chance in the bottom of the ninth inning after Nuñez singled and Wood walked, but García struck out to end the game.
“Just a really good bullpen,” Butera said. “We knew that. If we could do it over again, we have to take advantage right out of the gates when we had him on the ropes in the first inning.”
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