The 6-foot-10 Johnson went 10-1 with a 1.28 ERA in 11 starts, striking out 116 and walking 26 in 84 1/3 innings, after his 1998 trade from Seattle to Houston.ĭodgers starting pitcher Max Scherzer salutes the crowd after striking out San Diego Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer for his 3,000th career strikeout. If he can finish strong, he could challenge Randy Johnson for best trade-deadline pitching acquisition in baseball history. Scherzer has struck out 72 and walked five in 51 innings of his eight starts for the Dodgers, and he has not given up an earned run in 29 2/3 innings of his last four starts. You don’t want to have eight-pitch strikeouts. “But you want to get strikeouts efficiently. “I love strikeouts because the ball is not in play - they can’t get a hit when the ball’s not in play,” Scherzer said. Scherzer, whose five-pitch mix featured a four-seam fastball that averaged 95 mph and touched 98 mph, threw 92 pitches, 62 for strikes, and did not throw more than 14 pitches in any inning. Everyone can have the ability to do this, but few have the durability to do it.” “To me, this is a testament to durability, of making my 30-plus starts year in and year out. “It’s hard to describe the emotions of it - it’s an awesome achievement,” said Scherzer, whose parents, wife and three kids were in attendance. Sabathia retired after 2019 and is not yet eligible for Hall of Fame voting, and Verlander is still active though injured this season. Of the 18 other pitchers in baseball’s 3,000-strikeout club, all but four - Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander - are in the Hall of Fame. Scherzer got Hosmer to chase a down-and-in, 88-mph changeup for the second out of the fifth to become only the 19th pitcher in major league history to reach 3,000 strikeouts and the first to do it in a Dodgers uniform. Austin Nola grounded out and Nabil Crismatt, who replaced injured Padres starter Blake Snell in the first inning, hit a tapper to the mound for the third out. Scherzer whiffed Wil Myers with an 89-mph cut-fastball to open the third for strikeout No. Scherzer, 37, threw the third immaculate inning of his career in the second, striking out Fernando Tatis Jr., Hosmer and Tommy Pham on nine pitches, all swinging strikes, three of which were fouled off. The loss of the perfect game hardly put a damper on the day for Scherzer and the Dodgers, who completed a three-game sweep of the Padres to remain 2½ games behind the San Francisco Giants in the NL West with 18 games left. “One little pitch in a bad count, that’s what gives it up.”
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“To throw no-hitters, perfect games, you really have to execute every single pitch, especially at the end, because the other team knows what’s going on, and they’re giving you the best at-bats you can get,” said Scherzer, who threw two no-hitters for the Nationals in 2015.
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Scherzer settled for an eight-inning, one-hit, nine-strikeout, no-walk gem that improved him to 14-4 with a major league-best 2.17 ERA on the season, and 6-0 with an 0.88 ERA in eight starts since his July 30 trade from Washington. Scherzer retired the first 22 batters of the game, but five outs away from a perfect game - a feat accomplished by only 23 major leaguers - and with the drama and tension building with every out, he gave up a one-out double in the eighth to Hosmer, who laced a 2-and-1 changeup into the right-field corner. Scherzer had work to do, and his laser focus and disdain for distractions pushed the three-time Cy Young Award winner to the brink of even more history. When the Dodgers right-hander whiffed Eric Hosmer with a full-count changeup in the fifth inning of an 8-0 victory over the San Diego Padres, catcher Will Smith tossed the milestone ball to the dugout and Scherzer doffed his cap to a roaring crowd of 42,637 in Chavez Ravine, the delay lasting all of about 20 seconds. Max Scherzer zoomed past another signpost on the road to Cooperstown, N.Y., on Sunday, barely pausing to mark the 3,000th strikeout of a distinguished 14-year career that will culminate with his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Dodgers starting pitcher Max Scherzer gestures in the dugout during the eighth inning of the Dodgers' 8-0 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.