Washington Nationals: Shouldering Big Load, Max Scherzer Is a True Ace in NL

Before the 2015 offseason began, the Washington Nationals had arguably the best starting pitching rotation in the major leagues.

When they signed former Detroit Tiger and Cy Young winner Max Scherzer to a lucrative contract, there was no longer any argument. The Nationals had easily the best in all of baseball, and the plan was for Scherzer to come in and anchor what was being hailed as potentially the best five-man staff of all time. 

He has done everything in his power to do just that—he currently sports a stifling 2.13 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP—but his team has not met the huge expectations that faced them after Scherzer signed. 

Several predicted the Nationals to win the World Series, including Jayson Stark of ESPN and Las Vegas, and while the Nats have heated up of late and a World Series run is definitely possible, their pitching has been disappointing.

Scherzer has been awesome in his first National League action since 2009, and Jordan Zimmermann has been solid. But the three other members of the quintet have been underwhelming. Stephen Strasburg was awful before he got injured, Doug Fister is currently on the disabled list and hasn't pitched since May 14, and Gio Gonzalez's ERA sits at a pedestrian-at-best 4.42.

So it's not like Scherzer has had a ton of help from his other starting pitchers, and he hasn't gotten a lot of assistance from his offense or fielding, either.

He has had to battle every time out to get a victory, and on plenty of occasions he has pitched tremendous ballgames only to be handed a no-decision or a loss.

Scherzer has three tough losses, according to ESPN.com, which is the third-highest total in the MLB. That means by their calculations, he has pitched well enough to win only to see the ol' "L" appear in the ledger.

But even though it is a travesty his win-loss record is only 6-5, Scherzer might be the best pitcher in the National League to this point.

He leads the NL and is second in all of baseball in two crucial stats, per FanGraphs: wins above replacement (WAR), which measures how many wins a player is worth, among pitchers, and fielding independent pitching (FIP), which takes the pitcher's defense out of the equation and measures how many runs would have been scored with league-average fielding.

Baseball-Reference does not like Scherzer quite as much—Scherzer ranks eighth in ERA+, their main pitching metric—but he is in elite company nonetheless.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

So don't be fooled by his mediocre record, he has pitched much better than that might suggest.

A perfect example of that is Monday night's game against the Yankees. With the score tied at one after six innings, Nationals manager Matt Williams elected to send Scherzer out for the seventh even though he had already exceeded 100 pitches.

With runners on first and second, two outs and Alex Rodriguez at the plate, Scherzer induced a ground ball to shortstop. Ian Desmond fielded it cleanly with a dive and, with his momentum taking him that direction, threw to third for the force out. However, his throw caromed off the runner and went out of play, allowing one run to score, putting runners on second and third and ending Scherzer's night.

Immediately after he was relieved, Brian McCann crushed a single down the right field line for the third and fourth Yankee runs of the game, all of which were charged to the Nationals' $210 million man.

Scherzer acknowledged the bad luck following the loss to the Yankees:

"It was just one of those things that [Desmond] made a great play and was trying to get the runner at third and make it easy, and the ball hit the runner," Scherzer told James Wagner of the Washington Post. "That's just where you're not getting a break."

Just not getting a break—that's the type of year it has been for Scherzer. He has pitched as well as anyone expected.

Don't be fooled by the record, Scherzer is one of the elite starting pitchers in the game. 

His luck will turn around soon enough. He will get some run support along the way, and ideally he will start Game 1 of each postseason round.

The Nats certainly have the pieces to make a deep run, and they are going to need Scherzer at his best if they want to win their first World Series in team history.