Scherzer fans 11 to lead Nationals to 4-1 win over Cubs

The Washington Nationals (40-24) beat the Chicago Cubs (43-19) 4-1 tonight behind seven innings of two-hit ball courtesy of Max Scherzer.

Earlier this season, Max Scherzer of the Nationals tied the major-league record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game by K’ing 20 Tigers.

Right-hander Shawn Kelley is probably unavailable, too, given that he threw a five-out save Monday night. The right-hander also earned a measure of revenge against the Cubs after yielding seven runs in five innings at Wrigley Field on May 6 in the midst of Chicago’s four-game sweep. Alcides Escobar also drove in a run for the Royals.

Carlos Carrasco (2-2) gave up both Kansas City runs and 10 hits over six innings. With the infield playing in, Eaton bounced a grounder up the middle against Anibal Sanchez (3-7).

Mike Trout plans to attempt to play when the struggling Angels open a series against Minnesota, one of two AL teams with a worse record than them.

But it didn’t happen, and the Nats had a 2-1 lead, on their way to a 4-1 win over the Cubs. Kelley got all three outs in the ninth. J.D. Martinez had three hits while subbing for designated hitter Victor Martinez, sidelined by right knee irritation.

Eickhoff has now won two consecutive starts for the first time since his final two outings of the 2015 season.

Corey Seager has morphed into a bona fide Major League Baseball star. Peter Bourjos had two hits and two RBI for Philadelphia, which had lost 17 of 22 overall.

David Hernandez pitched the seventh, Hector Neris handled the eighth and Andrew Bailey finished the six-hitter.

Toronto scored 21 runs in winning its previous two games but did not manage an extra-base hit against the Phillies. The game was just the fourth all year in which the Cubs drew no walks (now 2-2 in those games) and just the second in which they didn’t have at least three hits.

Adam Duvall homered and drove in three runs for the Reds. The 26-year-old, who owns a 1.50 career ERA in three games against Washington, has given up a homer to Bryce Harper but has controlled Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon (0-for-6 each). That also ended up being their hit total for the night. In recent rivalry, the Cubs have won eight of the last 10 games with the Nats.

Gonzalez has the highest ERA of any of the six probable starters in the series. Hammel does better at home and is only 4-3 when he’s on the road where his ERA is up slightly at 2.57. Left-hander Gio Gonzalez will oppose Lackey and hope to fare better than May 7 in Chicago, when the Cubs dinged him for five runs in 5 2/3 innings.

Lester took on the challenge of joining a last-place team and a franchise that hasn’t won a World Series in more than a century, the Cubs betting $155 million on his left arm, big-game experience and sense of goal.

Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo homered in his first game back from the disabled list.

“For the offense to come through and put up some runs early with Odubel hitting the home run and Howie hitting the home run and then kind of grind it out, is awesome”.

“At first I didn’t know if [Eickhoff] was going to make five innings”.

The Cubs ran into a strikeout machine Monday night. Odd, as he hasn’t been overworked (just three appearances in June). Davis hit. 268 with four home runs and 25 RBIs for Triple-A Round Rock before being released Sunday.

Milwaukee at San Francisco, 9:15 p.m. He walked four and struck out five.