Scherzer entered the ninth inning having thrown 106 pitches. He gave up a solo home run to right fielder J. D. Martinez on the first pitch of the inning, but in the next at-bat he struck out third baseman Miguel Cabrera to set a new Montreal-Washington franchise record with 19 strikeouts. After giving up a single to first baseman Víctor Martinez – the only Tiger who made a plate appearance that he did not strike out during the game – he struck out left fielder Justin Upton on three pitches for his 20th and final strikeout. It was only the fourth time in Major League Baseball history that a pitcher had struck out 20 batters in a nine-inning game, and only the sixth time a pitcher had struck out at least 20 batters in any game. Although Scherzer gave up more hits and more runs than any previous pitcher who had struck out 20 batters in nine innings, he did not issue any walks, and of the 119 pitches he threw, 96 were strikes, the first time a pitcher had thrown 96 strikes in a major-league game since 2013; taking into account both the number of strikes thrown and the ratio of strikes to balls, it was the greatest number of strikes thrown in the fewest pitches in Major League Baseball history. On May 13, in a 5–3 victory over the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park, Stephen Drew and Chris Heisey both hit pinch-hit home runs. It was the first time in team history that the Nationals had two pinch-hit home runs in the same game. The two home runs made the Nationals second in Major League Baseball in pinch-hit home runs on the season with six in 35 games, three of them by Heisey. The Nats had had only five pinch-hit home runs during the entire previous season. Between games of a doubleheader against the Marlins on May 14, the Nationals announced that they had exercised their two-year option on the contract of general manager Mike Rizzo, ensuring that Rizzo would remain with the club through the 2018 season. The option reportedly paid Rizzo $2.5 million annually. The Nationals split series with the division rival New York Mets during the month, taking two out of three at Citi Field in Queens but dropping two out of three at Nationals Park. In both series, Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey suffered a loss, leading to consternation in New York over the staff ace's decline in performance. On May 26, Nationals manager Dusty Baker won his 1,700th game as a manager as the Nationals defeated the Cardinals at Nationals Park.