Recap: Zack Greinke Outduels Max Scherzer, Extends Scoreless Streak
Andre Ethier opened the fourth with a leadoff double to put the Dodgers in prime position to break through on the scoreboard. An interesting decision to have Yasmani Grandal lay down a sacrifice bunt nearly backfired as Puig went down swinging. However, with two outs and Ethier still standing on third base, Scherzer’s wild pitch allowed him to score and the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead.
Greinke kept collecting outs with ease by fanning Escobar for the first out in the bottom of the fourth. Espinosa failed to reach on a bunt single attempt and Robinson grounded out after Harper drew a two-out walk.
Save for a Kendrick single, the Dodgers had little going for them in the fifth. Greinke popped out while both Pederson and Gonzalez fouled out. Likewise, the Nationals continued to struggle against Greinke. Their half of the inning began with two grounders and ended with Ian Desmond striking out.
With five shutout frames in the books, Greinke ran his scoreless streak to 40.2 innings. Ethier continued with his hot hitting by leading off the sixth with a base hit. Grandal followed with a single of his own to give the Dodgers two on with no outs.
Scherzer worked his way out of trouble by striking out Puig a third time, getting Alberto Callaspo to fly out and Jimmy Rollins to also go down swinging. Grandal was removed in the sixth inning after taking a foul ball off his mask. A.J. Ellis took over behind the plate and Greinke put another zero on the board, allowing only a two-out single in the inning.
Greinke led off the seventh with a base hit to left and took second on Kendrick’s one-out infield single. Gonzalez followed with a bloop single that put Felipe Rivero in a bases-loaded jam. He struck out Ethier and then handed the ball to Aaron Barrett, who got the Nationals out of trouble by striking out Ellis.
Greinke fell behind in the count 3-1 to Harper but battled back and got him to chase a pitch in the dirt for the first out in the bottom of the seventh. The strikeout was Greinke’s eighth of the game. After Robinson dropped a single into right field Greinke battled back to strikeout Ramos and retired den Dekker on a chopper to first.
Puig struck out a fourth time as Casey Janssen set the Dodgers down in order in the eighth. Despite being up to 103 pitches on a sweltering day in the nation’s capital, Greinke was back on the mound to start the bottom of the eighth.
All he did was retire the side, striking out two along the way to give him 11 strikeouts in the game, setting a new season high. Greinke’s day came to an end with his scoreless streak up to 43.2 innings, which is the fourth-longest in MLB history. Additionally, he joined Don Drysdale and Hershiser as the only pitchers since 1920 with six consecutive scoreless starts.
With one out and the bases loaded in the ninth, Ethier drove in an insurance run with an RBI single to center. With the bases still loaded the Dodgers again went station to station on Ellis’ RBI base hit. Puig then put an end to his nightmare of a day by ripping an two-run single to left that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0.
J.P. Howell tossed a scoreless ninth inning to get the Dodgers a series win as their road trip now heads to Atlanta. The Dodges’ shutout win was their MLB-best 14th this season.
[divide]Zack Greinke On Pitching With Scoreless Innings Streak
