Miscue on fly ball costs Nationals, Scherzer; Mets win
WASHINGTON – Ian Desmond kept looking straight up as he stood at his locker.
"We all did," he said of thinking no-hitter as the Nationals marquee offseason investment, right-hander Max Scherzer, carved up the New York lineup until a sudden sixth-inning turnaround sent the Mets to a 3-1 victory. "He is what he is. You get 200 million-something dollars, you better have no-hit stuff."
Desmond, the Washington shortstop who'd love to cash in as a free agent next winter at even a fraction of Scherzer's new seven-year, $210 million deal, was looking up as if he still expected to catch David Wright's pop-up that would have ended the sixth with the Nationals still leading 1-0 and Scherzer's hitless outing intact.
He called off second baseman Dan Uggla in short right-center field but didn't make the catch. The error, after a two-out, four-pitch walk to Curtis Granderson, set up Lucas Duda's line drive single to right that scored both runners.
"The first hit he gave up was the difference in the game," said National manager Matt Williams. "It was a miscue. I thought Uggs was underneath it. Desi called him off. There was a little bit of wind blowing toward right field but Desi misjudged it.
Desmond agreed, acknowledging that Uggla called for the ball.
And his comment about what's expected from Scherzer hardly is a taunt. The guy does have that kind of stuff. The Nationals are counting on their potentially dominant rotation to provide a repeat National League East title.
No, there isn't a no-hitter on Scherzer's resume but, since the beginning of 2010, Scherzer now has 46 starts in which he's allowed four or fewer hits. The only guys with more are teammate Gio Gonzalez in the rotation being touted as baseball's best, Francisco Liriano and Clayton Kershaw.
Only Kershaw does more with those games, posting a 38-1 record in his 48 four-hits-or-fewer start. Scherzer is now 33-3.
No wonder he says, "It's never expected" of a day the Nationals ended up with fewer hits than the four the Mets finished with, though Washington was playing without the planned first three hitters in its batting order – the injured Denard Span, Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon.
"I always expect to have the offense score runs and let's win a ballgame," Scherzer said. "That's why we're here."
But Washington had just three hits – one a Bryce Harper home run -- against 41-year-old Bartolo Colon and four relievers that didn't include closer Jenrry Mejia, who missed the game with elbow soreness. The Mets will decide Tuesday whether to have an MRI on the elbow.
The Nationals' other best chance to score was in the first inning, when Michael Taylor led off with a walk and Yunel Escobar was safe on an error by second baseman Daniel Murphy. Their big guns had an opportunity for immediate energy in front of the opening day sellout.
But Colon struck out Harper and Ryan Zimmerman, then got Wilson Ramos to ground out.
Scherzer admitted the loss was frustration but said, "I also put myself in that situation with a two-out walk on four pitches. That's part of my undoing, too."
He said Duda's hit came on his best fastball all day, though he wasn't so complimentary of the fat pitch he left an inning later for Travis d'Arnaud's RBI triple off the center-field wall and just over the glove of leaping center fielder Taylor – which followed a Desmond throwing error.
Of course, it's all subject to the annual over-magnification of anything that occurs on opening day. Williams did his best to paint that picture. After all, the errors led to all three runs, leaving Scherzer's earned run average at 0.00.
Said Williams, "He's as advertised."
For a day, at least, Washington's NL East runaway isn't.