(Neil Miller/Sportsday Wire)
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer no-hit the Mets on Saturday night, as Washington won 2-0.
For Scherzer , this was his second no-hitter of the season, as he also tossed one on June 20 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is the sixth pitcher in Major League history to throw two no-hitters in a season, and the fifth to record both in the regular season. The others were Nolan Ryan, Virgil Trucks, Allie Reynolds, Johnny Vander Meer, and Roy Halladay, whose the one with a no-hitter in the regular season and the playoffs in 2010 for the Phillies.
Scherzer struck out 17 batters, tying Nolan Ryan for the most strikeouts in a no-hitter in Major League history. Ryan’s came as a member of the Angels against the Tigers on July 15, 1973.
Scherzer said of the no-hitter, “I was really in sync with Willie (catcher Wilson Ramos), and you know, when I needed to execute strikes in the zone, I was able to. When I needed to get the ball out of the zone for effect, I was able to. Pitching tonight you know, it was a cold night, the Pittsburgh one was a warm night, so that was a big difference between the two.”
On when he felt so locked in that this felt possible, “It’s tough to say when it was possible. When you go through the order one time through, you know you got something going. When you go through the order two times through, you know you’ve got a real shot, so that’s kind of what my threshold for when you know you have something going. After you get through six, you know you have a shot, and then if you get through seven, you can really undo the tanks in the eighth, and then you give everything you’ve got in the ninth. And once I was able to get through the seventh, I knew, okay, here we go, I got a real shot at this, and then through the eighth, I was able to get some strikeouts there, and then the ninth, those are battles, those are really good hitters that they pinch-hit with, with (Yoenis) Cespedes and (Lucas) Duda, and they have given me troubles all year long, so to be able to get those first two guys out, and then I know (Curtis) Granderson, he’s a tough out, he really has done a great job against me throughout his whole career, we faced each other a lot, and fortunately enough, I was able to get him to pop out, so that was special.”
On being the first pitcher since Ryan to throw two no-hitters in the regular season, Scherzer said, “Speechless. You mention that, I mean, you go out there and try to accomplish as much as you can, have as much success as you can, but when you start talking about that stuff, you don’t even have words for it.”
On having been in this spot a lot this season, having thrown a no-hitter and a lot of close calls and if that made him calmer, Scherzer said, “No, not at all, because you always simplify from one inning at a time, doesn’t matter if you’re in the fifth, you;re always trying to go out there and get outs. Really, I think over the past couple of starts where I’ve noticed I’ve had success, I really have tried to focus on making sure that I’m using my mind and thinking with what the reports and with the catcher and using that first and using my intensity second, not trying to get too amped up and out-do myself and become predictable. I felt like that was the case there in my start against Baltimore, and I learned from that start and, even though I gave up some runs and gave up a couple homers that cost me, I took something from that start and was able to apply it. Sometimes, you’ve got to throw 120 pitches to figure yourself out and that start, I really figured myself out, I understand what I need to do to pitch, and from that start, I feel like I really have thrown the ball well since then.”
Scherzer said of how the moment felt when it was done, “It’s like as soon as he catches it, go to Willie (Wilson Ramos) and let’s do our handshake. We have our little handshake that we do before every game, do it after when we get a complete game.”
On what he did between innings, Scherzer said, “Just my normal routine, come up, I’m watching the game, watching the video, checking on what I’m executing, not executing, staying in a rhythm, and tonight, staying warm and just going through the routine.”
The Mets were no-hit for the second time this season, with the first one coming on June 9th against the Giants’ Chris Heston. This is the first time the Mets have ever been no-hit twice in a season. Before that one, their last no-hitter came on September 8, 1993 against Darryl Kyle of the Houston Astros.
The Mets lost their fifth straight game, including both ends of the doubleheader on Saturday. They lost Game One 3-1 on Saturday afternoon. They were also shutout in the season finale in Philadelphia on Thursday, so that gives them just one run in three game.
For the Mets, they have just one game left to swing the bats well before four days off heading into the Division Series, which opens on Friday against the Dodgers.
Mets Manager Terry Collins said of his message to his team going into tomorrow’s game, “As I’ve told you guys, I don’t give speeches every day. They know what they’ve got to do. They’ll come out tomorrow and, you know, we’re gonna watch Jake (deGrom) a little bit because he’s coming back on four days rest to pitch on Friday, so that’ll be something that we’ll be a little careful of.
“The other guys are going to come out and play and the message is going to be ‘Finish on a good note. Finish on a strong note, and get ourselves ready.’ The four days off, we were talking today about, you know, when you have four days off, you can be red hot and four days off can cool you off, so maybe the four days we’ll get the heaters out and get real hot,” said Collins.”