Cubs have no answer for Nationals' Scherzer

Granted, there's a whole lot of baseball to be played, but fast-forwarding to a Chicago Cubs-Washington Nationals championship series sounds like fun.

The Cubs and Nats are the two best teams in the National League, and if things hold up they'll be on a collision course for an NLCS matchup.

If that's to happen, the Cubs might want to hope the Nationals have to use Max Scherzer as much as they have to in the division series leading into the NLCS.

Scherzer was missing Cubs bats in a big way in Monday night's series opener at Nationals Park, a 4-1 victory for the Nats. He struck out nine of the first 10 batters he faced and had a perfect game going until Addison Russell homered with one out in the sixth. Scherzer (8-4) wound up going 7 innings and giving up 2 hits while walking none and striking out 11.

The Cubs and Nats have a nice little something going. In May, the Cubs swept four from Washington at Wrigley Field, including a 4-3, 13-inning victory on Mother's Day, when Cubs manager Joe Maddon walked Nats slugger Bryce Harper six times (Harper was hit by a pitch his other time up.) Of the walks, 3 were intentional, including 2 with first base occupied.

In Monday's game, the Cubs twice walked batters intentionally with first base occupied. One time it was Daniel Murphy, whom Nats manager Dusty Baker inserted into the lineup behind Harper. That move worked in the fifth inning for Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks as Ryan Zimmerman struck out to end the inning.

Maddon did it again in the seventh, walking No. 8 hitter Danny Espinosa, forcing Baker to bat Chris Heisey for Scherzer. Heisey struck out.

The Cubs still have the best record in baseball at 43-19, while Washington is second best in the NL, at 40-24. Leading up to the series, Baker sounded defiant in talking with reporters.

“I approach the series with a positive attitude and thinking about winning and no negatives, because everything that (could go) wrong for us in Chicago (went) wrong and everything that went right in Chicago went right for them,” Baker said. “But you can't bring it back. There's nothing we can do about that. All we can do is go forward. You can give them the pennant right now if you want to. It's up to you, but you still got to play.”

Regular-season dominance doesn't always mean anything. Last year the Cubs went 7-0 during the season against the Mets before the Mets swept them out of the NLCS.

“The Cubs are coming in,” the Nats' Jayson Werth told the media. “They're playing good. We're playing good. You always feel like you owe somebody something.”