Scherzer extends to 75 pitches, officially gets opening day nod

JUPITER, Fla. - The question didn't really need to be asked, and the answer didn't really need to be given. But at this point, with 2 1/2 weeks to go, Davey Martinez figured he might as well make it official.

"I'm going to go out on a limb today and tell you that Max will be our opening day starter," the manager said this afternoon to open his postgame session following the Nationals' 3-2 exhibition loss to the Cardinals. "How's that?"

OK, so there was never any doubt about this one. Max Scherzer started three previous opening days with the Nationals and he was always going to start a fourth. But it can now be written in stone: It'll be Scherzer, the three-time Cy Young Award winner and 2018 runner-up, vs. the Mets' Jacob deGrom, the reigning National League award winner, on March 28 at Nationals Park. If you haven't already, buy your tickets now.

As for Scherzer? He's got two more exhibition starts to get himself ready for that 2019 debut.

He took another step in that direction today when he ramped up to 5 1/3 innings and 75 pitches in a start against the Cardinals' big league lineup. He was charged with three earned runs on six hits, but all three runs came in the bottom of the third and were directly attributable to a couple of catchable balls that were not caught: a shallow fly ball to left that fell in front of a late-breaking Juan Soto, then a line drive over Michael A. Taylor's head that twisted the center fielder around in awkward fashion.

"Look, I can also make better pitches, too," Scherzer said. "I'm not going to sit here and point fingers at anybody. I only point fingers at myself. But when it's spring, it's always good to pitch through some stressful innings, especially when they're scoring. When you're pitching with guys on base and have to execute pitches out of the stretch and have to change your timing, change your signs up ... that's all the little stuff you have to be able to manage within a game in the regular season.

"You want to experience that here in spring. So the fact there are misplayed balls is actually good. Let's knock them out of the way in spring. Let me work through some stuff here in spring to get ready for the season."

Scherzer's primary objective today was to build his arm up more than he had to date this spring, reaching the 75-pitch mark. He figured he'd go five innings, but when he walked off the mound with his pitch count at 68, he made it clear he wanted to return for the sixth.

Martinez's response: "All right. You got seven pitches. I expect two outs."

Scherzer recorded the first out, striking out Marcell Ozuna on a 94-mph fastball. José Martínez, though, followed with a single up the middle on the right-hander's 75th pitch, so the Nats skipper strolled from the dugout to take the ball from his starter.

"When we got out to the mound, he started laughing," Martinez said. "He said: 'At least he didn't hit the ball very hard off me.' He gets it."

"That's the important part that you take away from an outing like today," Scherzer said. "You're getting in shape. You're getting the arm in shape and you're creating distance and length within a game and still maintaining power."

Scherzer also took this opportunity to work on another key part of his game: His hitting stroke. No other member of the Nationals pitching staff has hit yet this spring; Scherzer has now done it twice. (He's 0-for-3).

There was a near-scare today, though. Batting in the top of the fifth, Scherzer took an up-and-in, 0-2 fastball from Jack Flaherty and appeared to glare at the young Cardinals right-hander for an extra second or two. Moments later, another up-and-in fastball caught the knob of Scherzer's bat and nicked his left hand.

"The 0-2 fastball up at my head, I didn't really like," Scherzer said. "The second one was kind of up and in. Thankfully, it hit the knob and it just glanced my finger. It didn't hit it directly. I kind of dodged a bullet there. Thankfully, it hit the knob."

Consider it just another tune-up for Scherzer as he creeps closer to his fourth opening day start for the Nationals, ready for the extra adrenaline to kick in after a month of lower-stress outings here in Florida.

"For me, you're not going to be able to get it all the way up for a spring training start," he said. "It's impossible. I'm a human. I know when the season comes on, the bright lights come on. That's when everything peaks."