Max Scherzer wins his 20th game as against the Marlins. Photo Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer won his league-high 20th game of the year and drove in a career-high four runs with two hits as the National League East champion Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 10-7 on Sunday in the regular-season finale.
Washington’s Wilmer Difo broke a 5-5 tie as he drove in a run with a fielder’s choice in the last of the fifth. Danny Espinosa followed with a two-run homer — his 24th of the year — to make it 8-5 off reliever Austin Brice.
Those runs gave Scherzer (20-7) the win, as he left after giving up five runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts in five innings. He led the league with 284 strikeouts this year and gave up 31 homers, including two Sunday.
The Marlins almost denied Scherzer the milestone when Tomas Telis had a two-run single in the eighth to trim the lead to 8-7 with two outs off reliever Reynaldo Lopez. But Sammy Solis, a lefty, fanned pinch-hitter Jeff Francoeur to end the inning.
Washington’s Trea Turner and Ben Revere added insurance in the eighth with RBI singles to make it 10-7. Mark Melancon pitched the ninth for his 17th save with the Nationals.
Scherzer had a two-run single up the middle to drive in two runs in the fourth as the Nationals took a 5-2 lead. The right-hander also drove in two runs with a single to center in the second to make it 3-0 after battery-mate Jose Lobaton drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly. The four RBIs were the most by a pitcher in Nationals history, from 2005.
Telis hit his first big league homer, a two-run shot in fifth, to pull the Marlins to within 5-4. His homer scored Ichiro Suzuki, whose pinch-hit against Scherzer was the 3,030 hit of his MLB career. Christian Yelich (three hits) had an RBI triple in the fifth to tie game at 5.
Former Washington minor leaguer Destin Hood, the right fielder for the Marlins, hit the first homer of his career off Scherzer in the fourth. The two-run homer trimmed the Washington lead to 3-2.
The losing pitcher was Brice (0-1), who gave up three runs in the fifth. Marlins starter Tom Koehler gave up five runs in three innings. Telis, Hood and Dee Gordon had two hits for the Marlins.
Daniel Murphy (.347) of the Nationals was retired as pinch-hitter in the sixth in an attempt to beat out D.J. LeMahieu of the Colorado Rockies for the National League batting title.
The Nationals (95-67) end regular-season play with a 50-31 home record and a mark of 51-25 against the National League East. Miami was 79-82 overall.
Since the game had no bearing on the standings Marlins manager Don Mattingly allowed third baseman Martin Prado to be the honorary manager. He started at third and then was replaced by Derek Dietrich.
NOTES: The Nationals will host the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. Game 2 is also slated for Washington on Saturday. … Washington LF Jayson Werth, who left Friday’s game in the seventh inning with back tightness, was not in the starting lineup Sunday and he did not play Saturday. … The last time the Marlins had a winning season was 2009 at 87-75. … The last time Washington had a losing record was 2011 at 80-81. … Nationals manager Dusty Baker, who led the team to a division title in his first season, also won division titles with the San Francisco Giants in 1997 and 2000, the Chicago Cubs in 2003 and the Cincinnati Reds in 2010 and 2012. … Marlins 1B Justin Bour, who started and hit fifth, played at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
