BLUE JAYS vs. NATIONALS: Official Full Game Highlights (July 27) | 2026 MLB Season

Headed for Cooperstown one day and when he gets there, we expect, we hope, that he'll be wearing a Nationals cap on his plaque. Max Scherzer, six and a half seasons with the Nationals organization, signed to that $210 million contract and boy did he earn every single penny. The numbers were outstanding, the team's success obviously, the World Series title, the individual success, the Cy Youngs, the no-hitters, the 20 strikeout game. Max Scherzer delivered everything that he could have possibly been asked to deliver. Eddie Jean. Eddie Jean is the opener today. 25 year old making his fourth appearance here in the big leagues. See how long he goes today. He faced just four batters two days ago, retired all of them in a leverage spot. This is a group that is last in Major League Baseball in runs per game, just 3.92. They're 29th in OPS, 26th in homers and they don't run much either and Eddie Jean gets three outs on seven pitches. Well this was cool just now. Max Scherzer getting ready to make his 100th career regular season start at Nationals Park, came out to the mound for the bottom of the first inning and got a standing ovation from the crowd here in DC. More importantly, he got tipped in. He acknowledged it. Right away. There you go. As focused, as game ready as Max Scherzer is on his start days, look at the little acknowledgments there to the fans, to the Nationals dugout. Now he gets ready to go to work. He faces James Wood for the first time. And James grounds one left side and through. First pitch that Scherzer throws off the I-L. A leadoff single for James Wood. I'm sure he would take that all day every day though with James Wood. Here's Luis Garcia Jr. Jr. is 6 for 11 with a double and a couple of homers against Max. In addition to everything else, the Washington Nationals lead the majors in stolen bases this year. Garcia lines up base hits a right field. That one gets to the right Lucas on one hop. Wood had to hold to make sure it would get through. He goes only to third base. The Nationals off to a quick start. Runners at the corners for Jose Tena to DH. Swing and a miss. A good change up there from Scherzer to get Tena. Career strikeout 3,504 for Max Scherzer. So one down and now C.J. Abrams, again the major league leader in RBIs. Two singles and a walk for the Nationals here in the first. And they've loaded the bases for Dylan Cruz. Got him. Second time he strikes at a Nationals hitter with a change up. Two down. Don't see a whole lot of change ups from Max Scherzer to right-handed batters. When you talk about catching a hitter off guard, I'm sure Cruz was thinking of that slider again. And now Scherzer's got a chance to get out of this if he can get the left fielder, Daylon Lyle. Ground ball down to first. Guerrero's got it and Scherzer gets out of a bases loaded, one out situation in the bottom of the first. And there are two quick outs for Max Scherzer. The number nine hitter is the second baseman, Nassim Nunez, who is the major league leader in stolen bases. Nunez a ground ball. Tough play for Okamoto to his backhand side. Fires and Nunez hustling down the line to beat out an infield single. Nice job by Naz. Used that other side of the field. Nationals are running on Max Scherzer here today. A stolen base of wood in the first inning. Now Nunez rips a bag here in the second. Inside ball four. That was close. Wood takes the walk and that'll bring Luis Garcia Jr. to the plate. And Garcia, we mentioned the number, seven for 12 against Max with two home runs. Garcia high fly ball to right. Back on it as Nunez will score easily. Wood to third. And Luis Garcia Jr. continues his homage of Max Scherzer. Now eight for 13 with two homers, two doubles, and four driven in. And the Nationals take a 1-0 lead on a wall ball double by Garcia. 1-2 is grounded to the first base side of the mound. Scherzer pounces on it. Underhand flips to Vlady and that will do it for the inning. The Nationals get one on a pair of hits. It all comes after two outs and the base is empty. Scherzer does strand to in scoring position. You thought Eddie Jean's first inning was good tonight. Seven pitches, five strikes. He then needed just four pitches in the second inning to get three outs. His 11 pitches through two innings, the fewest by any big league starter this season. Seven up, seven down for Jean on 13 pitches. Blake Butera has gotten more out of him than he expected to. Let's see, only two pitches to Varshall. Let's see how many to Urias who's 0 for his last 10, 2 for his last 21. He's hit high in the air, center field. Sprinting back, Cruz onto the warning track, looks up, it's gone. Home run Luis Urias. And we're tied at one on a big swing in the top of the third. So go figure, a guy who wasn't even supposed to face Jean hits a home run to straightaway center off him and ties the game at one. Some sneaky pop in that bat from Urias. He gets the start here with the anticipation of the lefty Alvarez coming in out of the bullpen and he didn't waste any time. These Blue Jays hitters are in swing mode and hadn't worked first time through the order, but Urias made it work. Now the batter, number nine hitter is Miles Straw, the left fielder. And Straw lines it fair down the line and all the way into the left field corner and is on his way to second with a double. So go figure, the guys at the bottom of the order who weren't supposed to face Jean have homered and doubled up. Top of the Blue Jays order, here's Ernie Clement out to left field to start the game. This could be last batter either way, whether he gets him or not for Jean. Clement pulls it off the bag and down the line. Straw is in to score, Clement is in to second and it's two on Blue Jays. Better to be lucky than good sometimes. Ernie hits this ball hard and it catches the third base bag and pops right over the head of Bebos into left field. So that'll do it for Eddie Jean. He allowed two runs responsible for a runner in scoring position. Here comes Andrew Alvarez. So give Abrams a stolen base, but Scherzer strikes out Cruz for the second time. They did it again with the same pitch. Change up down to the zone, gets Cruz out front. Third strike out of the night. Now the left fielder, Daylon Lyle, who grounded out in his first at-bat. And it's starting to get increasingly likely that Scherzer could be done either after this batter or maybe two batters from now at 73 pitches on the day. It's an epic at-bat. The next pitch will be the 12th. Got him! A curveball to get him for out number two. And he's going to give him the baseball. The move has been made and the Nationals fans who cheered for Max Scherzer for so many years when he was here will do so again here in Washington tonight along with the Blue Jay fans above the dugout and Max acknowledging all of them. Kirkover two and that'll bring up Kazuma Okamoto. Popped up in foul territory. First base side, his first at-bat. He jumps on a first pitch curveball and lines it into left to base hit. Luis Suarez holds up on a back foot slider and he'll walk to first. First and second now with two outs. Now a visit to the mound for Alvarez as Myles Straw comes up. Line drive right center field. It's a base hit and Okamoto is going to come in to score. Around the third goes Urias. Myles Straw having a nice night and it's three to one. Bottom of the order creating some havoc. Okamoto creating havoc on the base pass. When have we said that before? So now we'll see if Alejandro Kirk can execute. Obviously looking to get a ball in the air here. First and third one out. And Kirk swings and misses. There goes the bat. It goes through the camera well at the far end of the Blue Jays dugout as Kirk strikes out and had a very impressive bat toss to cap the strikeout. And here is Okamoto. This will be a big escape here if Alvarez can wiggle out of trouble. Here's the set. The throw over to first. They got him picked off. Garcia pump fake. Springer in a rundown. Garcia running him toward Nunez. Chasing him toward first. Now heading toward the plate. Guerrero the throw there. The tag by Ruiz and he's out. Guerrero saying to challenge he tried to reach to the back corner of the plate. They might overturn this. I mean if the hand is down and Ruiz glove on the shoulder he may have gotten that oven mitt in there. Did Ruiz happen to get the glove on any part of the body before he got it on the shoulder on the diving attempt? That's the only thing the Nationals can hope here. So if this is overturned it'll be 4-1 Toronto. If the call stands the inning over. After a few run on the field stands the Laddie disagrees but the Nationals get the last out of the fifth on a play at the plate. Andres Chaparro comes off the Nationals bench here. He'll pinch hit for Jose Tena. Chaparro pair of doubles over the weekend against the Diamondbacks. Two for eight overall. Crushes one down the left field line. Will it stay fair? Yes it will. Andres Chaparro remains on a heater. His fifth home run of the season. Four of them since the all-star break. And the Nats get a run closer. It's 3-2. Chappie with another laser beam for a homer. Left center, left field line on a four seamer middle end. Maybe slightly up. Right there on a tee for him. 108 off the bat. 432 feet. That is hitterish. And Alvarez walked the first batter he faced in the game. So that's walk number three now. He walked Lucas coming into the third. And there he is twice. Draws double to left and scored. And single to right center driving in a run. Swing of the chopper past Alvarez charging up Abrams. Gloves on the run. Throws on the run. In time for the out. And the inning is over. Really nice play by CJ Abrams. Charging in, scooping it, and firing a dart on the run to Garcia to get the speedy miles drawn. And that's it for the Blue Jays in the top of the sixth inning. Two down. We'll see how Dylan Cruz fares. Cruz did not fare well against Max Scherzer. Max struck him out twice in very big spots. Cruz hits one hard out to left center. This is going to skid off the turf and get all the way to the wall. Dylan Cruz into second with a two-out double and a chance for the Nats to tie this game here in the eighth. So the Nationals have their first hit since the sixth inning. Cruz smokes a double for his eighth of the year. The Nationals have the tie run at second base for Daylon Lyles. Splitter swung on and missed. Strike three. Hoffman strikes out three around the double. Here's Miles Straw who is definitely not known for his offense, but he's two for three. He had a double and a run scored in the third. So a hard line drive on one hop. Backpedaling, Abrams has it. A fall away throw and a bounce is on target for the out. CJ Abrams, a fine play. That was not an easy play. A sharp low line drive. Abrams gave ground and speared it off his left side. Did the full spin around and made an accurate one-hop throw to get a guy with speed. Dewey Varlin did not pitch on the weekend in the Red Sox series at Fenway Park. He last pitched on Thursday against the Rays when he secured his 21st save of the season. Retiring the Rays top of the order in order with a couple of strikeouts. And really with the probable exception of Mason Miller has been the best reliever in baseball this year. Absolutely. And the Nationals down to their final out. Haseem Nunez has to find a way to get James Wood to the He will. Lined out to center. A two-out single will get Wood into the batter's box. In the dirt, ball four. So that will move. Tying run to second base and put the winning run on at first base. Garcia taps his bat on home plate. Nunez at second, the tying run. Wood at first, the winning run. Got him! 100-mile-an-hour fastball to blow him away. Picks up his 22nd save of the season and the Blue Jays win the opener 3-2.