Max Scherzer didn’t throw a no-hitter, but still made history
Max Scherzer didn’t throw a perfect game or a no-hitter Sunday, but his 16-strikeout one-hit complete game shutout in the Nationals’ 4-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday actually put him in an even more exclusive club.
In the modern history of MLB there have been 23 perfect games and 245 no-hitters. There have only been 12 pitchers to record a Game Score of 100 or better in a nine inning game and Scherzer’s dominant outing hit 100 on the dot.
What’s Game Score you ask? It’s a metric created by baseball stats guru Bill James to put a single number on a starting pitcher’s perfomance in a game. Here’s how you calculate it:
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And here are the 11 pitchers that broke 100 before Scherzer:
That’s one impressive list, led by Kerry Wood’s memorable 20-strikeout performance in 1998 and featuring Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, and Warren Spahn. Clayton Kershaw’s 102 Game Score came in a no-hitter in 2014 as he pitched his way to the NL MVP and his third NL Cy Young award.
Scherzer, who lost his perfect game bid when he gave up a bloop single to Carlos Gomez in the seventh, has been absolutely brilliant in his first season in Washington. His ERA is now 1.93 and the 16 strikeouts he racked up Sunday were a career-high.
Before Scherzer hit 100, the highest Game Score number recorded in 2015 was 98 and it was done twice. Cleveland’s Corey Kluber hit 98 in a eight-inning, 18-strikeout game in mid-May while San Francisco’s Chris Heston was two short of 100 in his no-hitter earlier this week.
So while Scherzer wasn’t quite perfect, his performance still stands as one of the best we’ve ever seen.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
