WASHINGTON (AP) - Max Scherzer’s outing went from perfect to almost perfect to not perfect enough in a matter of minutes.
Scherzer lost his perfect game in the fifth, his no-hit bid in the seventh and then the game as the Washington Nationals fell to the Cleveland Indians 3-1 on Tuesday night. Scherzer again approached his third career no-hitter but got knocked around by the Indians at the wrong time.
“Once you make it through six, you’ve got a shot,” Scherzer said. “I threw the ball really well tonight. It’s the little things that beat me.”
The little things, in order, were a single by Francisco Lindor, a throwing error on a pickoff attempt at first that became a two-base error, an RBI double by Jose Ramirez and an RBI single by Lonnie Chisenhall.