ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves have been living a charmed existence during the first couple months of the 2018 season. A 34-23 start, a long stay in first place, a rebuilding plan that has come together ahead of schedule, frightening injuries to foundation players -- Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr. -- that turned out to be much less serious than initially feared.
Then, with the National League East favorite Washington Nationals visiting SunTrust Park for a big, four-game series this weekend, there was this: The Braves missed Max Scherzer's turn through the rotation.
As it turns out, though Atlanta won't have to face Scherzer's filthy repertoire on the mound this weekend, they were beaten by him anyway. Scherzer's pinch-hit single in the 14th inning sparked a two-run rally as the Nationals outlasted the Braves 5-3 on Saturday and moved within a half-game of Atlanta in the NL East.
Scherzer's hit off Braves reliever Miguel Socolovich with one out in the 14th was far from a screamer. Statcast gave Scherzer's knock an exit velocity of 83.8 mph. But it got the job done.
"I've hit in big situations, so it's the same thing," Scherzer said. "You go up there, you have to get in the box and have pre-pitch thoughts and, for me, try to hit it up the middle. I'm not going to be hitting the ball out of the ballpark. I know that. I've got a high school swing. I know it. But, hey, it's good enough just to get a ball in play, and sure enough, something happens."
It was Scherzer's first career pinch hit in his third appearance in the role. Overall, the three-time Cy Young winner is a .194 career hitter with one home run. This season, he stole his first career base, something Washington manager Dave Martinez thought might have been on his ace's mind as he led off first base.
Instead, after a Michael Taylor fly out, Wilmer Difo hammered a drive to right-center that reached the fence. Off on contact, Scherzer raced around the bases to score standing up, while Difo slid into third with a go-ahead triple. Difo then scored when Cobb County, Georgia, native Spencer Kieboom singled him home.
"It looked like [Scherzer] was going to try to steal as well, and I was like, 'Oh, boy,'" Martinez said. "Then all of a sudden, he goes first to home, and I'm holding my breath. But he was flying. I said, 'You can run.' He said, 'I can do it all.' Kudos to him. He picked us up."
As a starting pitcher, Scherzer bats on a semi-regular basis. Still, it had been a while since he'd gone first to home.
"A couple of years ago," Scherzer said. "I got it. I know how to run the bases."
According to Statcast, Scherzer's mad dash around the bases took 10.89 seconds, giving him a sprint speed of 26.9 seconds. The league average is 27 seconds, and if Scherzer had enough instances to qualify, 26.9 seconds would rank 10th on the Nationals, just ahead of outfielders Adam Eaton and Bryce Harper.
"I'm telling you now, Max is just a baseball player," Martinez said. "He really is. He's a student of the game, he pays attention, he's analyzing sitting there. I told him, 'No matter what, you're hitting. Whether you go up to bunt or there's one out, you're going to hit. So do your thing.' He was all-in. That's who he is. He got us going. It was a big moment."
Saturday's game was two different affairs, as Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez noted afterward.
"The first game doesn't matter anymore," Gonzalez said. "The second game was the best. My game was irrelevant. The best part was watching the bullpen go out there and do the job."
In that "first game," Gonzalez gave up three runs in a six-pitch stretch to start the fifth, when Atlanta's Nick Markakis and Tyler Flowers singled on the first two pitches of the inning. Then third baseman Johan Camargo took Gonzalez deep with a shot over the center-field fence. That gave Atlanta a 3-2 lead. Washington rookie Juan Soto tied the score with a solo homer to lead off the seventh.
Gonzalez was finished after seven innings, and so was the Braves' offense. That's when the second game began.
Six Nationals relievers combined to set down the last 21 Atlanta batters of the game. Justin Miller took care of the biggest chunk, working three perfect innings, striking out five and earning the win. Sean Doolittle finished things off in the bottom of the 14th.
According to Elias, it was the first time in Nationals/Montreal Expos history that the team posted seven perfect relief innings in one game.
"Incredible," Martinez said. "I have no other words. For me, [Miller] is the star of the game. For him to do what he did, hadn't done it, threw [40] pitches. I can tell you right now, he's going to be down [for tomorrow's game]."
The Atlanta bullpen was going toe-to-toe with the Nats' relief staff. Lefty reliever Sam Freeman gave up the homer to Soto, but after that, Freeman, Shane Carle, A.J. Minter and Peter Moylan combined to retire the next 12 Washington hitters. Jesse Biddle followed that with three scoreless frames with eight strikeouts. It marked the fourth time this season that a reliever had recorded eight or more K's, but no Braves reliever had done that since Rick Kester on Sept. 13, 1970.
All those zeros and whiffs only served to set the stage for Scherzer, who had plenty of advance warning that he might be seeing action.
"About the ninth inning, I told him he might want to put his cleats on, if this game gets to extra innings," Martinez said. "He was excited. He's still excited."
Afterward, the celebration in the Washington clubhouse could be heard in the corridor in the bowels of SunTrust Park. Inside, everyone who looked at Scherzer could not help but smile, or even laugh, before exchanging a high-five. It was one of those moments that sticks out during the slog of 162 games over six months. Besides, even if Scherzer's teammates and coaches wanted to forget his offensive heroics, there is no way he's going to let that happen.
"[Hitting coach Kevin Long] is not going to hear the end of this," Scherzer said. "That one's going to sting for a while. I'm going to have to wait until the second half before I let that one go."
In many ways, Saturday's contest was a perfect example of how the game is being played these days. The teams combined for 34 strikeouts (but just three walks). There were only 14 combined hits in 14 innings, three of which were home runs. Atlanta hitters struck out 16 times without drawing a walk, which the franchise had done only one other time in 110 years. Twelve relievers paraded to the mound.
Nevertheless, even as we wring our hands about the epidemic of long games (this one went four hours on the nose) and the epidemic of Three True Outcomes, it doesn't mean there isn't plenty of fun to be had at the old ballpark. Not when players such as Max Scherzer are hanging around.
"At this point, we don't care what Max does," Gonzalez said. "Just do it. If makes you win 50 games, then do it. What he does right now, as far as his preparation to get us there, that was unbelievable. The way he went in that game with the mindset he's going to get on base, that's what we love about him."