WASHINGTON -- The way the Nationals have aligned their rotation through the rest of the season, Max Scherzer is in line to finish the year with three more starts, including Thursday night against the Mets, a chance to pad his resume as he pursues his third consecutive National League Cy Young Award.
It gives him a chance to continue racking up strikeouts in pursuit of reaching 300 strikeouts on the season. On Thursday, Scherzer struck out Jason Vargas to start the fifth inning, his eighth strikeout of the evening and 285th on the year, setting a new career high and breaking his own Nationals' single-season record from 2016.