Max Scherzer: "Now it's time for us to answer the bell"

ST. LOUIS - Max Scherzer battled through six tough innings on Wednesday night to put the Nationals in position to avoid a sweep against the Cardinals. To tell how rough the past month has been, the 4-3 win was just the first for the Nationals with Scherzer on the mound since Aug. 4.

The Cardinals offense was aggressive, whacking 11 hits against Scherzer, a season-high and the most since June 7, 2014 against the right-hander. But the ace responded, limiting St. Louis to two runs while striking out 10 without a walk.

"It was a grind," Scherzer said. "Some of my pitches ... I stayed out of the middle for the most part, but one of my strengths is pitching up in the zone and they were able to just get the ball out to the outfield. I had to find a way to just keep grinding through that. When I made mistakes, they hit them as well. They grinded out a bunch of hits against me as well, but I was always able to find a way to make a big pitch in a big situation for the most part."

Scherzer constantly attacked all night, only falling behind in the count to two of the 29 Cardinals batters he faced. That's the approach the right-hander has attempted to get back to since he was knocked out after giving up six runs in just three innings in a loss to the Giants on Aug. 14.

"I'm pounding the zone and doing it at a really high rate," Scherzer said, who hasn't walked a batter in 11 of his 27 starts this season. "I'm not falling behind hitters at all. Those are the type of things I strive for and pride myself on is attacking the hitters and doing it with all my pitches."

Scherzer was particularly excited about the command of his curveball, a pitch that had escaped him at times during his struggles the past month. He pointed to using it in a big spot with a 3-2 count to strikeout the red-hot Brandon Moss in the fifth with runners at the corners.

"(Wilson Ramos) called it and as soon as he put it down, I was like 'that's a good idea,'" Scherzer said while acknowledging the strong instincts of his catcher throughout the game.

Ramos factored heavily in Scherzer's 10th and final strikeout of the night as well. With the Nationals holding a slim 3-2 lead in the sixth, Matt Carpenter stood on second representing the tying run after a two-out double. Scherzer peered in at Cardinals rookie Stephen Piscotty, who had already singled twice off the ace earlier in the night.

On a 1-2 pitch, Scherzer fanned Piscotty on a wicked slider, but the ball skipped away from Ramos. Piscotty raced up the third base line with Carpenter rounding third as Ramos chased the ball, grabbed it, spun and flung an off-balanced strike to Ryan Zimmerman at first. Scherzer roared like a lion as he stalked off the mound.

"It was just a situation where I saw the ball get away," Scherzer said. "That's a really tough play to be able to spin and throw and get him. You just want to be able to get out of that inning. It was a tough pitch for him to block, slider in the dirt, it just got away from him. He made a great play to get it behind him and then spin and throw. I was just pumped that he was able to get him out because it was a perfect throw right to Zim, right over the runner. That's what you want to do to finish your outing like that. Finish with a strikeout. "

It was the eighth double digit strikeout game of Scherzer's season and the 33rd of his career. His 219 strikeouts are second best in the National League this year.

Zimmerman twice gave Scherzer the lead, breaking ties in the fourth and sixth with solo homers before eventually driving in the game-winning run on an RBI double in the eighth.

"I think Maxie has been throwing the ball well," Zimmerman said. "Unfortunately, he's just been making a few mistakes a start and they hit every mistake, which doesn't happen that often. He'll be fine. We're looking forward to him having some good starts these last five or six starts that he has. He's going to be a big part of this run we go on."

With 30 games remaining, the Nationals trail the first place Mets by 6 1/2 games. After four games against the Braves beginning tonight at Nationals Park, New York comes to D.C. on Monday. After missing both Mets series since the All-Star break, Scherzer will finally get a chance to make his mark with a start in the pivotal series early next week.

"Hey, it's September, it's a fight," Scherzer said. "We got to play our best baseball now. Obviously, we got to make up some games and we got to come ready to play every single game. Every single day is a fight. You got to win every single game. I'm not saying we are gonna win every single game, but you got to approach it like that.

"It's September. I've been saying that the whole time, 'wait 'til September, wait 'til September'. Here it is. Now it's time for us to answer the bell and go out there and do something. We have an opportunity right in front of us. This is a big homestand. If we get some momentum with this, we can do some great things here with the rest of our season."