Friday at Nats Park

 The rain had finally stopped. It was actually a really nice day and a great evening for baseball.

They were selling this great t-shirts to honor Max's 20 strike out night. Talk about working fast to get them ready for people to buy.

Shortly after Max Scherzer tied a major league record with 20 strikeouts on Wednesday, local T-shirt company BreakingT got to work on a couple of designs to commemorate the feat.

“The strikeouts are sexy, and that just makes it special, and the 20 really puts a stamp on it,” Scherzer said after the game.

The first part of that quote, with 20 forward and backward Ks signaling each of Scherzer’s punch-outs, now appears on an MLBA-licensed T-shirt that will be available at the Nationals team store at Nationals Park beginning Friday.

The game was going pretty well for the Nats until the 5th inning when an error and a couple other miscues allowed the Marlins to get on the board.

From the Post:

The Nationals dug themselves an early deficit thanks to some poor defense and tough luck. The main culprit for the miscues: Daniel Murphy, who, until now, had masked his defensive reputation with the hottest bat in baseball.

But the fifth inning started with Gio Gonzalez walking Marcell Ozuna. Gonzalez got Chris Johnson to roll over a pitch, producing a perfect double-play ball. But Murphy couldn’t make the play, putting two runners on before matters got worse. With one out, Miguel Rojas hit a groundball to Murphy, who made a late throw to first base after a bobble.

Gonzalez and Ryan Zimmerman both covered first, though each was a step late. Murphy’s throw sailed past them and by the time Zimmerman tracked it down near the dugout it was 2-0.

“I have to do my job in getting over,” Gonzalez said. “That’s definitely on me.”

 But things got better from there.