Nationals starting pitchers' scoreless streak ends at 48 innings
A Cody Asche RBI double in the seventh inning of Friday's Nationals-Phillies game ended the second-longest scoreless innings streak by a team's starting pitchers in baseball history.
Joe Ross, Max Scherzer, Gio Gonzalez, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Doug Fister and Scherzer again combined for 48 consecutive innings of scoreless work over Washington's past seven games.
The Asche double also ended Scherzer's personal scoreless innings streak at 24 2/3. Until the sixth inning of Friday's game, when Freddy Galvis broke up Scherzer's bid for a second-consecutive no-hitter, Scherzer had allowed one hit over a 23 1/3 inning span.
Scherzer threw a no-hitter during his last start on June 20, as well as a one-hitter on June 14.
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Coming in to Friday's game, Scherzer averaged 7 1/3 innings per start, the most of any pitcher in baseball, as well as just 3.68 pitches per batter faced, according to ESPN. Despite yielding runs in the seventh and eighth innings, he averaged just 3.45 pitches per batter faced during Friday's game.
The 30-year-old's success Friday came against a Phillies team that has the worst record in baseball (26–49) and that lost manager Ryne Sandberg earlier in the day to resignation.
The Nationals' starters' streak ended at the same time the U.S. women's soccer team extended its World Cup shutout streak to 423 consecutive minutes, the third longest in the Cup's history, according to ESPN.
- Will Green
