Nats' Scherzer will start vs. Rockies Sunday if game has playoff implications

If the Colorado Rockies want to make the playoffs, they should think about taking care of business before Sunday.

Although the Washington Nationals are already eliminated from the postseason, ace Max Scherzer - who's already thrown a major-league high 220 2/3 innings this season - announced that he's ready to start Sunday's season finale at Coors Field should there be postseason implications for the Rockies. If Colorado, which leads the NL West by a single game, has been eliminated before Sunday, he won't toe the rubber for a 34th time in 2018.

"The way I look at it is: Hey, if there's a playoff atmosphere on the line here, where somebody could get knocked out, that's a heck of an environment to pitch in," Scherzer told Mark Zuckerman of MASN on Friday. "Even though we're playing for nothing, at least I'd be able to toe the rubber knowing that the atmosphere with the crowd and the other team we'd be playing would probably be at the highest level of any opponent I faced this year. Why wouldn't I want to compete in that?"

The Rockies are hoping to clinch their franchise's fifth playoff berth since 1993 and their first-ever NL West title during their final series of the season this weekend against the Nationals.

If Scherzer starts Sunday, he'll be doing so on full rest thanks to the team's off day Thursday. The 34-year-old, who's 0-3 with a 5.88 ERA in five starts for his career at Coors Field, said that although Tuesday was supposed to be his final outing of the year, he threw a bullpen session in Washington ahead of the team's flight to Denver and feels that he's ready for one more start.

"I didn't think I was going to pitch (in this series)," Scherzer said. "And then once I realized how tight the races were ... frankly, I thought they'd want to shut me down regardless of the situation. I was anticipating that response from them. But actually it was the opposite. They wanted me to pitch. So, sure. Let's go."

The two-time defending NL Cy Young award winner is a top candidate to win it for a third straight year (and for the fourth time in his career) once the season is over. He leads all NL pitchers in innings pitched, wins (18), WHIP (0.91), and strikeouts (300), while sporting a 2.53 ERA that ranks third. On Tuesday, he became only the fifth pitcher since 2000 to record a 300-strikeout season, and sits five Ks from tying Pedro Martinez's Nationals/Montreal Expos franchise record for most punchouts in a season.