LOS ANGELES — Stephen Strasburg pitching on two days rest.
Max Scherzer in relief two days before a scheduled start.
What’s next, those two singing the national anthem? Raking the infield during the seventh inning stretch? Handling the fireworks display when the Nationals finally advance in the postseason for the first time in franchise history?
The Washington Nationals who, matched up against the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers, are embracing a “Whatever The Heck It Takes To Win’’ approach.
That approach was on display again Friday night when the Nationals beat the Los Dodgers 4-2 and evened the best-of-five series at one game apiece.
Strasburg, two days after throwing three innings of relief in the Nationals’ wild-card game, pitched six stellar innings, striking out 10 and allowing just one run. Then Scherzer, who started the wild-card game and was scheduled to start Game 3 Sunday, pitched the eighth inning.
Scherzer mowed down the Dodgers, striking out Joc Pederson, Chris Taylor and Gavin Lux, with his fastball topping out at 99 mph.
Yes, the use of Scherzer caught Dodgers manager Dave Roberts by surprise. And he looked a little glassy-eyed after watching his team strike out 17 times – with Strasburg and Scherzer combining for 13 of those.
“Obviously when you deploy Scherzer in Game 2, they're going to play every game to the end and use whatever part of the roster they have,’’ Roberts said. “They trust their starters. They're going to rely on their starters.’’
With the Nationals probably going as far as Strasburg can take them, it conjures up memories of the days when the Milwaukee Braves leaned on starting pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain, inspiring this poem:
First, we’ll use Spahn, Then we’ll use Sain, Then an off day, Followed by rain.
Back will come Spahn , Followed by Sain , And followed, We Hope, By two days of rain.
The weather forecast doesn’t look helpful for the Nationals, but they might not need help from Mother Nature based on how they won the wild-card game and Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
It hinged largely on buy-in from Strasburg, who until Friday had never pitched on short rest in the majors.
“I'm very routine-oriented and I would say my younger self would be a little bit alarmed by it,’’ Strasburg said. “But now it's kind of, at this point in my career, it’s… just another challenge.’’
It is the ultimate challenge, tasked with beating a Dodgers team that won a franchise-record 106 games and has reached the past two World Series.
Could Scherzer start Game 4 (with Anibal Sanchez starting Game 3 and Patrick Corbin, the Game 1 starter, coming out of the bullpen for Game 3) and Strasburg start Game 5?
“Yeah, it's a good possibility,’’ Martinez said of that scenario. “I mean I'm going to sit back tonight and think about a bunch of different things and wake up tomorrow and get on a plane and think about a bunch of different things and then we'll be ready to go.’’
Turns out this plan was not hatched in desperation or a sudden burst of creativity, but rather conversations with Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo that took place a while back.
“You know, before the series started, before we even got to the playoffs, our game plan was to try to utilize these guys the best way possible without disrupting their starts,’’ Martinez said. “And we talked to all of them and they have all been on board. …
“Every day's crucial. We had a chance to win today. And I told Max, if the game's close then we'll use you. And we did that.’’
Because that’s what it took.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/playoffs/2019/10/05/nationals-stephen-strasburg-max-scherzer-dodgers-nlds/3879048002/
2019-10-05 12:16:00Z
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