Dominant Scherzer gets 9th win as Nats shut out O's
Starter Max Scherzer turned in another dominating performance and Bryce Harper homered for the second consecutive night as the Washington Nationals defeated the host Baltimore Orioles 2-0 on Wednesday at Camden Yards.
Scherzer improved to 9-1 with the victory as Washington stretched its winning streak to six games and swept a second consecutive series. The Orioles have lost five consecutive games as their offense continues struggling.
Scherzer’s nine wins now lead the majors. Overall, Scherzer allowed two hits in his eight innings. He struck out 12 and walked just one.
His biggest jam came in the seventh inning when Baltimore put runners on first and second with two outs. But Scherzer struck out Chris Davis and escaped further damage.
David Hess (2-2) nearly matched Scherzer in just his fourth major league start and took the hard-luck loss. Hess gave up one run on four hits in six innings and is making a case for being the No. 5 starter when Chris Tillman is ready to come off the disabled list.
The only run that Hess allowed came on the Harper homer to left in the top of the third inning. That gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead and Harper his 18th home run this year.
Those 18 homers have Harper in first place in the National League and, at the moment, tie him for the lead in the majors. The right fielder also homered in Tuesday’s win and has hit homers in three of his past four games as he’s trying to break out of a recent slump.
Juan Soto, the 19-year old rookie outfielder, kept up his hot hitting with an RBI single off Miguel Castro in the seventh. That gave Washington some insurance and a 2-0 lead.
Scherzer then got through the seventh and eighth before Sean Doolittle came on in the ninth and closed it out for his 13th save. The left-hander also earned a save in the win on Tuesday night.
—Field Level Media