WASHINGTON - A Hall of Fame manager who did much of his work just up I-95 from here used to say baseball was all about pitching, defense and three-run homers.
Former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver would have liked what he saw out of the Washington Nationals in this one.
Max Scherzer showed off his Cy Young Award-winning form Tuesday night against the Pirates and Bryce Harper, batting leadoff for the first time this season, provided the three-run homer as the Nationals routed the Pirates, 12-4, in a game that really wasn't even that close.
Actually, it wasn't just Harper's three-run homer in the fifth inning that hurt Pittsburgh starter Chad Kuhl. Kuhl gave up just four hits in 4 2/3 innings. But all four were home runs, as Matt Adams got him twice, once in the fourth inning and again in the fifth. And light-hitting Wilmer Difo hit one off of him in the third inning, accounting for all six runs allowed by Kuhl.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO"He had some good sequences and then he got three fastballs in hot spots and a slider that really didn't break," Clint Hurdle said of Kuhl, who fell to 3-2 with the loss. "He just kind of spun it over the plate to Adams. I don't think I can remember the last time I had a pitcher give up just four hits and all four were home runs to left-handed batters. The overall fastball command was inconsistent."
Kuhl, who did not allow a hit to a right-handed batter, said he just missed his spots to the lefties, who are now hitting .340 against him this season compared to .295 for right-handers. Neither is ideal, but the 45-point difference is great.
"I felt like a couple of the fastballs flattened out over the heart of the plate," Kuhl said of the pitches to the lefties he made in this game. "They made me pay for it."
And that was all the support Scherzer (6-1) would need.
He shut the Pirates out through six innings, allowing just two hits with eight strikeouts. It wasn't until after Tyler Glasnow replaced Kuhl and allowed six runs in a seventh inning that took nearly 20 minutes to complete that the Pirates finally got to the Washington ace.
He allowed a leadoff walk to Josh Bell and then Corey Dickerson blasted a two-strike pitch into the stands in right field for his fourth home run of the season and second in as many days.
After Scherzer allowed a hard-hit ball to pinch-hitter Elias Diaz — that turned into a groundout to short — in the next at-bat, his night was done.
"He was good. We've seen him throw a no-hitter," Hurdle said of Scherzer, who no-hit the Pirates June 5, 2015. "That sets the bar pretty high. We had some fastballs to hit early. Once he started sprinkling the secondary pitches in, it's rough."
Especially when the Pirate pitching is so sloppy.
It was a poor outing for Glasnow, in particular, after he allowed just three earned runs in his past 8 2/3 innings, spanning three appearances.
Tuesday night's effort ballooned his season ERA to 7.71 after he had worked hard recently to get it down into the 4s. And Hurdle wasn't happy at seeing his long man struggle again.
"I left him out there because he's the long man and he'd pitched 1/3 of an inning," Hurdle said. "We're trying to get more than 1/3 of an inning out of him. He's got a responsibility to the bullpen, as well. We gave him the opportunity to pitch 1 1/3 innings and he wasn't able to do it. Then, his pitch count got to where we needed to get him out. The execution was off there, not a good feel for his secondary pitches and his fastball was sprayed. He fell behind hitters. It's a tough combination to overcome."
And with the Pirates making the decision to keep Nick Kingham on the roster after his superb spot start Sunday and give him another start Friday, and Joe Musgrove now throwing rehab starts, it could be Glasnow who winds up back in Class AAA again to work some things out.
The Pirates added two more runs in the ninth inning on Max Moroff's first home run of the season, but four home runs beats two home runs almost every time. Especially when one of them is a three-run shot by Harper, who was batting leadoff for the first time this season to give him more protection.
Harper came into the game having been walked 39 times, the most in the majors, including nine intentionally. The Pirates had walked him twice intentionally Monday night in the opening game of this series.
After recording the first out of the fifth inning, Kuhl enticed Scherzer, batting eighth ahead of Difo, to hit a grounder to third base. But Colin Moran committed his second error of the game on the easy ground ball, putting Scherzer on first with Difo coming up.
Batting ninth, Difo, who had two hits in the eighth spot Monday night, drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch after fouling several pitches off, bringing Harper to the plate. Harper hit the first pitch from Kuhl into the stands in left field for an opposite-field home run and a 5-0 lead.
"We've gotten him to swing a little bit. We made a bad pitch," Hurdle said. "The guy's a really good hitter. The ball was out over the plate and it got hammered. That's not where we wanted the pitch. He hits homers. He's got a big swing and a lot of confidence at the plate. We saw him take some big swings at some curve balls. It was first and second. We weren't going to walk him. You're a major league pitcher. You can get outs. Just don't put it in a hot spot."
1. BOTTOM OF THE ORDER BLUES
Scherzer also had an RBI batting in the eighth spot ahead of Difo in this game and Difo now has four hits and two RBI after entering the series batting less than .220.
The Nationals also got a key RBI single out of starting pitcher Tanner Roark in Monday night's 3-2 win, getting good production from the bottom of their order.
"We've given him pitches to hit," Hurdle said of Difo. "You look at the pitches he hit (Monday), big leaguers, when they're on, will hit pitches that are thigh high in the middle of the plate. He worked himself a 3-2 count, got a fastball in the middle of the plate and put a pretty good swing on it."
2. DICKERSON'S CHOKE JOB
Typically, choking and sports are not something you like to do. But Dickerson is finding that choking up on the bat is giving him a shorter swing. And the results have been good. While many in the Pirates' lineup have struggled through streakiness this season, he's been very consistent. He'll take a .311 average into Wednesday's game and will try to homer for the third straight contest.
"It's been fun to watch. Not since (Joey) Votto and before that (Barry) Bonds," Hurdle said of seeing a guy hit for power while choking up on the bat. "You go up there and have two inches of bat under your bottom hand. You don't sacrifice power. Votto does it. Anybody that thinks you do is wrong. There's plenty of evidence. Not many guys want to do it. It might be catching on, who knows?"
If Dickerson had his way, it would. He said he has toyed with it before when he was in Tampa, and hitting coaches here also suggested it. He figured, why not?
"I'm just trying to be short (to the ball). Trying to make good contact. It helps me see the ball longer," Dickerson said. "It's just part of my approach now. It's about being a tougher out and put the ball in play more, not strike out.
"It maximizes my hand-eye coordination. I'm already a good bad-ball hitter. So when I choke up, I can be better at squaring up balls and fouling off pitches."
3. BELL'S TOLL
Bell has been struggling at the plate. The 25-year-old has just one home run this season and his batting average had dipped to .232 entering this game.
But he had a pair of hits in this one and also drew a walk, scoring on Dickerson's home run. His hits weren't especially hard-hit balls, but they went in the scorebook as a single and a double.
That raised his batting average to .243 and the double was his eighth extra-base hit of the season. The multi-hit game was the first for the switch-hitter since April 18, and he singled from the left side of the plate and doubled from the right.
Might this be the kind of game that pulls him out of his slump? I asked Dickerson that exact question.
"For sure," Dickerson told me. "For younger guys, a couple of hits can go a long way, not matter how you get them. You start feeling the pressure come off of you a little bit. I try to tell him, 'You've played this game since you're a little kid. The hits will come. Just keep playing your game.'"