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Angels fire manager Ausmus; Maddon next?

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October debuts for stars like Nats’ Soto, Astros’ Álvarez

<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Based on what everyone says about Washington Nationals righty Max Scherzer, he seems like an obvious choice to start the NL wild-card game against Milwaukee.</p><p>Scherzer is, in the words of Brewers manager Craig Counsell, &#8220;probably going to the Hall of Fame.&#8221;</p><p>Brandon Woodruff, Counsell&#8217;s choice to start for visiting Milwaukee on Tuesday night, couldn&#8217;t wait to meet Scherzer at the All-Star Game and admires the three-time Cy Young Award winner because he has that &#8220;kind of fire inside of him a little bit.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re fortunate,&#8221; Nationals manager Dave Martinez said, &#8220;to have a Max Scherzer pitch in the wild-card game.&#8221;</p><p>Is it really that clear-cut? Martinez could have, instead, gone with Stephen Strasburg, who, unlike Scherzer (11-7, 2.92 ERA, 27 starts), was healthy all year and put up some of the best numbers of his career. Strasburg and rotation-mate Patrick Corbin will be available in the bullpen.</p><p>There&#8217;s also an elephant in the room: Scherzer&#8217;s postseason statistics.</p><p>It is unfashionable these days to even mention win-loss records when it comes to pitchers, but Scherzer&#8217;s teams &#8212; the Nationals and, before that, the Detroit Tigers &#8212; have not enjoyed much success with him on the mound in the playoffs of late.</p><p>Since a 2013 AL Division Series victory for Detroit against Oakland, Scherzer has made seven postseason appearances, in a mix of starting and relieving, and his teams are 0-7. Scherzer himself is 0-4 in that stretch, lowering his career record in the postseason from 4-1 to 4-5.</p><p>&#8220;Season&#8217;s on the line. I&#8217;ve pitched in these situations before, and it&#8217;s just crazy baseball. The intensity&#8217;s out of your mind,&#8221; said Scherzer, who took the loss in Washington&#8217;s most recent October flop, coming in during the fifth inning of a Game 5 home loss to the Chicago Cubs in a 2017 NLDS. &#8220;And you&#8217;ve got to go out there and be your best and just compete as hard as you can.&#8221;</p><p>The Nationals are 0-3 in winner-take-all postseason games, all at home. They&#8217;ve never advanced in four previous trips to the playoffs over the last eight years.</p><p>The Brewers, in contrast, made it to a Game 7 of the NCLS just a year ago.</p><p>Another disparity at play in a game that will determine who advances to face the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers starting Thursday: How they try to get 27 outs.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re different. And I think playoff teams should be different,&#8221; Counsell said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s cool.&#8221;</p><p>The Nationals rely heavily on their rotation, led by Scherzer, Strasburg and Corbin, who all ranked in the top 10 in the NL in ERA, strikeouts and opponents&#8217; batting average. Their bullpen&#8217;s collective ERA, meanwhile, was the worst in the majors this season.</p><p>That is part of the reason Martinez says Strasburg and Corbin are available in relief.</p><p>&#8220;A game like tomorrow, you put roles aside, you put egos aside, and you go with your best guys,&#8221; closer Sean Doolittle said, &#8220;and those are our best guys.&#8221;</p><p>Milwaukee, in contrast, is at the vanguard of the trend around the majors to change pitchers early and often.</p><p>&#8220;For me,&#8221; Woodruff said, &#8220;I&#8217;m looking at it, coming into tomorrow, treating it like any other start, where my goal is to finish the game.&#8221;</p><p>That won&#8217;t happen, of course. Woodruff (11-3, 3.62 ERA in 22 starts) has pitched in only two games since returning from a strained left oblique that sidelined him for nearly two full months; he went two hitless innings each time. Even if he was healthy, Counsell would be quick to get All-Star Josh Hader and the rest of the bullpen involved.</p><p>Both clubs made a big push to get this far, so maybe it won&#8217;t matter to either side that Monday&#8217;s planned workouts at Nationals Park were limited because of rain.</p><p>Washington closed the regular season on its longest winning streak of 2019, eight games, to cap a turnaround that saw them go from 19-31 on May 23 to 93 wins.</p><p>Milwaukee, meanwhile, was in third place in its division as August ended and just a couple of games above .500, before using a 21-4 run &#8212; despite losing 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich to a broken kneecap &#8212; to get back to the playoffs.</p><p>So Counsell, who said he&#8217;s not sure yet whether Lorenzo Cain&#8217;s injured left ankle will be good enough for him to be out there Tuesday, compared what his team faces at Nationals Park to what the last month has been like.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think &#8230; it&#8217;s any different,&#8221; Counsell said, &#8220;than how we&#8217;ve treated every day since Aug. 30.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer speaks at a baseball news conference, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019, in Washington. The Nationals are scheduled to face the Milwaukee Brewers in a National League wild card game Tuesday, Oct. 1. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-de395151ae40453a8a241f197b060a21.jpg</photo0><caption0>Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer speaks at a baseball news conference, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019, in Washington. The Nationals are scheduled to face the Milwaukee Brewers in a National League wild card game Tuesday, Oct. 1. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-62c83c6d6de248798bd7a59965cce10f.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer speaks at a news conference on Monday in Washington. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-62c83c6d6de248798bd7a59965cce10f.jpg</photo1><caption1>Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer speaks at a news conference on Monday in Washington. </caption1><photoCredit1>AP photos </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-cf3bf836167541df97907fd3267fd84f.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer, left, and Gerardo Parra celebrate after the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, in Washington. Washington won 6-5 and clinched a Wild Card berth. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-cf3bf836167541df97907fd3267fd84f.jpg</photo2><caption2>Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer, left, and Gerardo Parra celebrate after the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, in Washington. Washington won 6-5 and clinched a Wild Card berth. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)</caption2><photoCredit2>AP photos </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-c0ad1f2cf7964edba40de51f06600d2f.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff speaks at a news conference on Monday in Washington. Woodruff will face Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals today in the National League wild-card game. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_123674718-c0ad1f2cf7964edba40de51f06600d2f.jpg</photo3><caption3>Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff speaks at a news conference on Monday in Washington. Woodruff will face Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals today in the National League wild-card game. </caption3><photoCredit3>AP photos </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Howard Fendrich</p><p>AP Sports Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

‘Mad Max’ carries playoff skid into wild-card game