A series of off-days in late March and early April allowed Washington Nationals manager Davey Martinez to arrange his rotation so that perennial Cy Young Award candidate Max Scherzer received three starts in the first eight games.
The early emphasis on Scherzer ends Sunday, when the Nationals will try to win one of his outings for the first time in the rubber game of a three-game series against the host New York Mets.
The Mets earned a wild 6-5 comeback win Saturday, when Pete Alonso and Robinson Cano hit back-to-back homers to tie the game in the eighth before Keon Broxton delivered the go-ahead RBI single two outs later.
Scherzer (0-2, 2.13 ERA) is scheduled to oppose the Mets' Zack Wheeler (0-0, 7.20 ERA) in a battle of hard-throwing right-handers.
Beginning Saturday, the Nationals have games on five straight days, prompting Martinez to finally implement a traditional five-man rotation. Scherzer, who started against the Mets on Opening Day on March 28 and again against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday, isn't expected to start again until April 13.
If all goes according to plan, Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg will each have made three starts by the time fifth starter Jeremy Hellickson takes the mound Wednesday. Scherzer is the first pitcher in the Nationals/Montreal Expos franchise to start three times in the season's first eight games since Dennis Martinez did so for the Expos in 1988.
"We talked about this leaving spring training," Davey Martinez said Saturday morning. "A lot had to do with the days off. His next outing after (Sunday), he'll get six days. So he'll get an extra day of rest."
Wheeler, who will be facing the Nationals for the second time in as many starts this year, will be working with two extra days of rest thanks to an off-day Friday and the Mets using fifth starter Jason Vargas during the first trip through the rotation.
Wheeler didn't factor into the decision March 31, when he gave up four runs over five innings as the Mets fell, 6-5.
Afterward, Wheeler, who gave up a three-run homer in the third inning to Trea Turner, said he may have grown too fastball-happy against the Nationals, whose hitting coach is former Mets hitting coach Kevin Long.
"It was good for the most part," Wheeler told reporters. "I'm just beating myself up right now of falling into that little groove of fastball happiness, and that's what really got me today. As soon as it happened, I recognized it and changed it up from there on."
Scherzer took the loss Tuesday, when he gave up two runs (one earned) over five innings as the Nationals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 8-2 in their first game against former Washington star Bryce Harper, who signed a 13-year contract with Philadelphia as a free agent in March.
It's Scherzer's first 0-2 start since 2009, when he opened 0-3 for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Scherzer is 9-5 with a 2.43 ERA in 18 career games (17 starts) against the Mets. He victimized New York for his second career no-hitter on Oct. 3, 2015, when Scherzer struck out 17 and allowed only one baserunner. Kevin Plawecki reached on a sixth-inning throwing error by third baseman Yunel Escobar.
Wheeler is 4-8 with a 4.54 ERA in 14 career starts against the Nationals, whom he's faced more than any other opponent.
--Field Level Media