The Nationals dropped the Magic Number to 6 while going to a season’s best 29 games over .500 as Max Scherzer won his 17th game while Trea Turner gave Max all the offense he needed with 4 runs scored on 4 hits. The Nats won 7-2, and it was never really close.
Max Scherzer was good as he got to face a Braves line-up without Freddie Freeman who was on paternity leave. Scherzer was charged with 2 earned runs, and it is possible that the first run is changed to unearned as Matt Kemp stopped at 3rd base on a single, but then ran home on a fielding error which was followed by a walk and 2 strikeouts.
Trea Turner’s night just adds to his legendary status as he went 4-5 with 8 total bases highlighted by a 408 foot home run off of a 79mph off-speed pitch where Turner had to supply most of the power. Turner stole 2 bases and scored 4 runs and had 2 RBIs. Turner raised his batting average to a rookie leading .349 BA and .927 OPS for rookies with at least 250 plate appearances. Possibly the most amazing stat is Turner leads the Majors in the 1st at-bat of the game as he is now batting .460.
Trea Turner HR #9
The Nationals knocked out the Braves starter quickly as John Gant was pulled at 1 2/3 innings after giving up 5 earned runs. Daniel Murphy had 2 hits tonight with some slick defense, Anthony Rendon added 2 hits, and Jayson Werth had a 3 hit night. Stephen Drew had a 1-3 night with a walk, but easily could have been 3-3 as he was robbed by Dansby Swanson and Matt Kemp in the leftfield gap.
“Getting on base,” said Trea Turner as his number one priority. “You have guys like JDub, Murph, and Harp behind me that have had great years—they are capable of driving me in with one swing of the bat so my job is to get on-base, and tonight I scored four runs.”
