Scherzer pitches well again, continuing starters hot streak

Right-hander Max Scherzer pitched Sunday. And he pitched really well.

No, really he did.

The Nationals allowed only two runs in 18 innings Sunday. The game took so long, Scherzer felt like he was already preparing for his next start.

"My arm hurts it's so long ago," Scherzer said. "Now I can actually feel day-after soreness."

But Scherzer did pitch well. He tossed seven innings, allowing only one run over six innings, with one walk and seven strikeouts. The Pirates strung together a pair of doubles in the sixth to take a 1-0 lead on hits by Erik Frazier and Starling Marte.

"I went out there with Willy (Ramos)," Scherzer described. "We did some good things and we were in a pitcher's duel, and when that happens you know every little mistake gets amplified. I think it was there in the sixth, I didn't quite have the extinct I should've had and they were able to scratch a run across. And proved to be a big run considering how well there guy was throwing the ball."

Overall, Scherzer was pleased with his outing. It paired well with his tremendous win over the Mets before the end of the first half, and his determined scoreless frame for the National League in the All-Star Game on Tuesday in San Diego.

"There was a lot of good that came out of today," Scherzer said. "Really wanted to harp on throwing first pitch strikes and I did that. I'm not going to sit here and beat myself up. There's some little things I could tweak."

He did well against Andrew McCutchen, even though the battles took up a ton of pitches. Eight pitches in the first at-bat: strikeout. Nine pitches in the second at-bat: strikeout.

Scherzer ended up 103 pitches with 75 strikes.

"He was fouling pitches off," Scherzer said, "finding a way to get the bat to the ball and just have long at-bats. We had a history of going at each other. He knows what I'm going to do against him. Juts trying to find a way to collect outs and he just did a good job of grinding."

And the reason Scherzer didn't suffer the hard luck loss? The amazing season of his teammate Daniel Murphy continued with a dramatic bottom of the ninth, two-out, two-strike game-tying solo homer drilled into the home team's right field bullpen. Scherzer is not surprised at all.

"Not at all. We're all calling it," Scherzer said. "We almost knew it was going to happen. Soon as he hit it we were like yeah, we're going to play 16 innings today. We were wrong, we played 18."

Scherzer continues an amazing run. Since June 1st, Scherzer is 5-2 with a 1.62 ERA. He has 81 strikeouts with only 13 walks allowed in his past 61 1/3 innings.

The Nationals starters have been lights out since July 8: Stephen Strasburg, Scherzer, Gio Gonzalez, Strasburg, Tanner Roark and then Scherzer again; five of those starts are wins. They have allowed only six runs in six games as a pitching staff.