Max-nificent

When the Nationals signed Max Scherzer as a free agent last winter, they knew how talented he was (70 victories over the last four years) -- and that he'd never tossed a complete game. Some skeptics wondered if he was just excess on a staff that already featured Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman and Gio Gonzalez.
In a year that Washington has underachieved -- and still finds itself trailing the Mets in the NL East -- Scherzer has quieted the critics, posting a sub-2 ERA while striking out more than 7 times as many batters as he's walked. And then came Sunday's game at Miller Park in Milwaukee.
Max carried a perfect game into the 7th inning until Carlos Gomez' bloop single. So he "settled" for a one-hitter, with one walk and 16, yes, 16 strikeouts. He was in such a dominating groove that manager Matt Williams chose not to pull in the reins and allowed Scherzer to finish the first complete game of his career.
I spell that kind of performance "A-C-E."
OK, You know there's a story to go with the picture. When I caught the Nationals in Spring Training, it was not Max's day to work. He only popped his head out of the dugout for about a minute -- and never turned around to look at the crowd. So this is as close as I've come to him so far in '15, When Washington visited the Mets at Citi Field in late April, it wasn't his turn either. He didn't spend much time that night -- I checked my inside-the-dugouts photos and he was nowhere to be seen. And due to another commitment, I couldn't be at Yankee Stadium last Tuesday when he was matched up with (but lost to) Masahiro Tanaka. With the Nats still having two remaining visits to New York this season (in August and the first weekend of October -- the final games of the season), I'm hoping I can finally catch Scherzer in action.