The pitch clock giveth, and the pick clock taketh away – and Max Scherzer found both in the third inning of Friday’s game against the Nationals.
Ildemaro Vargas led off the inning with an infield single, and during the subsequent Victor Robles at-bat, Scherzer was called for a balk, ostensibly because, after Robles called his time out, he was not yet alert to the pitcher in the box when Scherzer tried to deal a quick pitch:
Scherzer had been working quickly, so he was curious as to what happened, but one batter later, after Robles reached on a Luis Guillorme error, Riley Adams stepped in and looked like he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play on the first pitch…but he actually got an automatic ball, as Scherzer had not lifted his leg to start his motion prior to the 20-second clock expiring.
Robles then stole second on the first actual pitch of the at-bat, and after Scherzer struck out Adams, it all unraveled. CJ Abrams grounded out to first baseman Pete Alonso, scoring Vargas, and then Alex Call made it 2-0 on a two-out single to score Robles from third.
Perhaps that rattled Scherzer quite a bit, because it got worse from there: Luis Garcia smacked a no-doubt two-run homer to deep right to make it 4-0, Guillorme made a second error to let Joey Meneses reach, and Jeimer Candelario smacked a double to put runners on second and third, and Stone Garrett reached on a bang-bang infield single to third base - one that maybe could've been challenged, if there were replay in Spring Training.
And so, Scherzer, who needed just 21 pitches for two perfect innings ahead of the third, needed 29 to get two outs in the third – and when all was said and done, he ended up charged with seven unearned runs after David Griffin allowed both inherited runs to score, and the Nationals led 8-0 when the third out was finally made.
One heck of an unraveling, and sure to be some interesting quotes from both Scherzer and Buck Showalter post-game.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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