Max Scherzer Scores Go-Ahead Run after Pinch-Hit Single in 14th Inning

Max Scherzer can do it all. The two-time defending National League Cy Young leads MLB this season with nine wins, .900 win-percentage, 120 strikeouts, 1.96 FIP and 0.854 WHIP. Now he is showing his batting skills.

With the bench emptied and needing a bat in the top of the 14th inning, Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez turned to his pitching ace. Scherzer delivered with a one-out single to center. Two batters later, Scherzer scored the go-ahead run hustling from first off an RBI-triple by Wilmer Difo.

The Nationals tacked on an insurance run to defeat the Atlanta Braves 5-3 in 14 innings.

The pinch-hit single pushed his average to .310 in 29 at-bats. That’s tops in the majors among pitchers with at least 20 at-bats. He is no Shohei Ohtani, who pitches and DH’s for the Los Angeles Angels and has record 106 at-bats, but Scherzer is effective. And he knows his limitations.

“I’m not going to be hitting the ball out of the ballpark. I know that, Scherzer explaining his pinch-hitting single per Mark Zuckerman of MASN. “I’ve got a high school swing. I know that. But you know what? It’s good enough to get a ball in play. Something happens.”

Let that be a hitting lesson to all. Scherzer’s determination to make something happened paid off and gave his Nationals a much-needed win, snapping their two-game losing streak to the Braves and moved them one-half game behind Atlanta for first place in the NL East.