WASHINGTON (AP) — A few days after the birth of his second daughter, Kacy, Max Scherzer was back to work.
His wife wouldn’t have it any other way.
Scherzer sustained a dominant stretch with seven strong innings two days after the birth of his daughter, Kurt Suzuki homered and the Washington Nationals beat the Kansas City Royals 6-0 on Saturday.
The NL pitcher of the month for June, Scherzer (9-5) allowed four hits and struck out 11 with one walk in his final outing before heading to Tuesday’s All-Star Game, where he won’t pitch. Kacy was born Thursday.
“I know my wife, Erica, she wanted me to pitch today,” Scherzer said. “She wants me out there pitching, she doesn’t want me sitting at home. We got the in-laws in, we got help. She’s a baseball wife, she (was) a pitcher (in college). She knows she wants me out there competing.”
Scherzer has won seven straight starts and has an 0.84 ERA over his last nine appearances. On Saturday, he settled in after a 22-pitch first inning and later struck out the side in the seventh inning as Washington won for the ninth time in 11 games.
“I played in Atlanta (with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine) and those guys they had were pretty good, but what I’ve seen out of Max is incredible, it really is,” manager Dave Martinez said. “I don’t know how many games now where he keeps getting better and better as we go along.”
Both teams wore throwback uniforms in celebration of their franchise’s 50 years since joining Major League Baseball in 1969, with the Nationals wearing the powder blue uniforms of the Montreal Expos.
Kansas City starter Glenn Sparkman (2-5) gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings.
“The way it looked early, they were going to bash his brains in, and he did a nice job of settling down and making pitches,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I was pleased that he was able to give us six strong.”
Alex Gordon had two hits and a walk for the Royals, who have lost eight of 10.
With Washington leading 1-0, Matt Adams walked leading off the second and Suzuki followed with his 11th homer of the season to culminate a 10-pitch at-bat.
Juan Soto had two RBI singles.