WASHINGTON _ The Orioles were not able to complete a four-game interleague sweep of the Washington Nationals on Thursday night, but nobody can blame Ubaldo Jimenez for that.
Jimenez, who replaced injured ace Chris Tillman for the final game in the home-and-home series, pitched one of his best games of an agonizing season, but he picked the wrong place at the wrong time to be rewarded for it.
Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, who was honored with a bobblehead night to commemorate his second of two 2015 no-hitters, was almost unhittable in a 4-0 victory over the Orioles before a sellout crowd of 39,722 at Nationals Park.
He retired the first nine batters he faced and struck out six of them before Adam Jones broke through with a leadoff double in the fourth. Scherzer then went on to set down another 12 in a row on the way to an eight-inning, two-hit performance that featured his 47th career double-digit (10) strikeout game.
Jimenez, meanwhile, had to work a little harder. He also cruised through the first three innings _ giving up just one hit _ but left his first pitch of the fourth inning out over the plate and Jayson Werth hammered a no-doubt shot over the center-field fence to give the Nationals the 1-0 lead.
That would be all the Nationals would get while Jimenez was on the mound. He allowed just five hits over six innings and two of them were on the infield. He struck out four and did not walk a batter. He gave way to newly recalled right-hander Logan Ondrusek with only the possibility of getting another loss.
It was the type of game in which the Orioles offense has been known to wait out an overpowering pitcher and take advantage of the opposing bullpen, but Scherzer was too efficient for that. He was working with a complete-game pitch count throughout and never really let any suspense take hold.
The Orioles got the leadoff batter into scoring position in the eighth inning after Mark Trumbo singled and stole second with two outs, but J.J. Hardy could only hit a long-but-routine fly ball to center field.
Ondrusek shut down the bottom of the Nats batting order in the seventh to keep the O's within a run, but he could not handle the top of the Washington lineup in the bottom of the eighth. He allowed the first three batters to hit safely and bring home the second run before Mike Wright came on to allow a two-run double to Bryce Harper. And that was that.
Manager Buck Showalter said on Wednesday that Jimenez was only making a spot start and his performance would not necessarily determine whether he would fill in for Tillman the next time this slot in the rotation comes up, but it seems very likely that he earned that opportunity with Thursday night's performance.
The Orioles took the train to New York after the game and will open a three-game series against the Yankees on Friday night at Yankee Stadium. Yovani Gallardo is scheduled to start for the Orioles against rookie Luis Cessa.
