And the pitching has really been the story for Washington. Through 18 innings of the series, Nationals pitchers have held the Cardinals to one run on four hits. And Sánchez and Scherzer combined to allow just two hits while recording 44 of 54 outs.
Fighting a tough sun, the Nationals got on the board in the top of the third inning on Michael A. Taylor solo homer.
Michael A. Taylor puts #Nats up 1-0 in Game 2. #NLCS pic.twitter.com/4Mi6XffevR
— 106.7 The Fan (@1067theFan)
October 12, 2019 And that was all Scherzer needed as he was dealing. He struck out 10 through six innings without allowing a single hit.
Max Scherzer is trying to pull an Anibal Sanchez. He's thrown 5 no-hit innings for the #Nats. The Cardinals have one hit in 14 innings of baseball so far in this NLCS.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen)
October 12, 2019 Max Scherzer has faced 20 batters through 6 IP:K --️BBK --️K --️GroundoutGroundoutK --️K --️GroundoutK --️GroundoutK --️PopoutPopoutK --️K --️PopoutK --️BBGroundout#Scherzday // #STAYINTHEFIGHT pic.twitter.com/LicegHGOtE
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals)
October 12, 2019 Scherzer exited the game after seven stellar innings allowing just a single to Paul Goldschmidt and two walks while striking out 11 Cardinals. The Nationals ace was nothing short of magnificent.
Max. Effort.[grunt> pic.twitter.com/PmthbMcngb
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja)
October 12, 2019 Nationals manager Davey Martinez turned to Matt Adams to bat for his starter with one out in the top of the 8th inning and the move worked out with a single to right field. Trea Turner followed with a bloop single into right center and the Nationals finally had something cooking against St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright. After an extended battle with Adam Eaton, the Nats' outfielder broke the game open with a two-run double down past a diving Goldschmidt at first to put the Nats up 3-0.
"We Eaton!" - @Nationals pic.twitter.com/3rbnWQTJVe
— MLB (@MLB)
October 12, 2019 Washington gave one run back in the bottom half of the inning after Taylor misplayed a two-out line drive hit right at him in center field to cut it to a 3-1 lead.
Normally tremendous defensively, Michael A. Taylor's rare misplay in CF gives the #Cards their first run of the series and a chance after 8 innings. Nice job by Sean Doolittle to buckle down and get the next batter to keep the #Nats in front 3-1.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen)
October 12, 2019 In the 9th, Martinez went to starter Patrick Corbin to get left hander Kolten Wong before Daniel Hudson, off of paternity leave, came on to face Goldshmidt and Marcell Ozuna. It was no problem as fly out and foul pop out gave the Nationals a 2-0 lead in the series.
Say what you want about Davey Martinez. The dude manages with basketball sized stones. This is way out of the box and gutsy. Starter in a role he isn't accustomed to for a batter.Here we go.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen)
October 12, 2019 Love how Davey is continuing to manage with an all hands on deck approach.
— Eric Bickel (@EBJunkies)
October 12, 2019 Managing in October takes making decisions with urgency, rolling the dice, getting out of the box and leaving all your experience in the clubhouse sometimes.The buttons Davey Martinez is touching are working.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen)
October 12, 2019 But thanks to the starting pitching the Nationals have a 2-0 series lead and need only two wins out of the next three games, they can clinch their first World Series appearance in franchise history at Nationals Park.
Assassin. pic.twitter.com/zIjDKn0ApG
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja)
October 12, 2019 Follow @BenKrimmel and @1067theFan on Twitter.
