Scherzer "felt good" in latest bullpen session (Nats fall 4-3)

NEW YORK - Wearing his full road gray Nationals uniform, right-hander Max Scherzer went through a full bullpen session Saturday afternoon as he recovers from a mild rhomboid strain that has had him out of the rotation since July 26.

"Good, got off the mound, progressing to where I want to be," Scherzer said of the session. "Turned the corner a few days ago, started playing catch, getting through the ball again. This is the next step to getting on the mound, made sure to throw a bullpen, recover from that, go out there and do lifts and get out there and heal and get strong."

"He threw 36 pitches," Nationals manager Davey Martinez said. "I don't want to say it was 100 percent but he was up there in intensity. He let a couple balls go pretty good. He mixed everything in.

"He had a bullpen session. He felt good. We talked to him. We are going to see how he feels tomorrow and then go from there."

With Scherzer going through a couple of different issues this season related to his shoulder and muscles in his back, the Nats are being extra cautious this time around in rehab planning. The right-hander said the key now is how his body reacts Sunday morning.

"It's not about how I feel, it's about how I recover," Scherzer said. "That's the problem here. I can go out there and pitch, it's how I recover that's the problem. So, for me, it's going through here, do the program, what I do in the training room and the weight room, and make sure I can get on the mound. Do all the exercises I need to do, and do the exercises I need to do and recover. That's the most important thing with this. Recover and stay strong for the next day."

"He understands the injury," Martinez said. "He's understanding where we are coming from. We're trying to get him healthy, not just for one part but for the rest of the season. We are being very cautious in getting him ready to come back and be able to help us out for the rest of the season and postseason."

Scherzer has had some time for introspection during this most recent rehab timeline and has seriously considered adjusting his exercise program with advice from the training staff on strengthening the rhomboid area now and in the offseason so he will not have to go through a similar problem in the future.

"He's trying to figure out his body," Martinez said. "He's very intense. We all see it every fifth day, but throughout his whole workouts in between he gets after it. This is an issue that he doesn't want it to reoccur, so he's trying to figure out ways how to mix in exercises to keep that area strengthened.

"For right now we are going to try to get him through one more (bullpen session), and then we will go from there and see where we are at. But if he needs another one, I'd rather him take another one just to make sure."

Scherzer provided more detail as to what the rehab, training and strengthening regimen entails off the field during this recovery. The strengthening he is working on now is for the time in the game when he is throwing pitches 75 through 100, innings five through seven.

"Everything, whether it's soft-tissue work, but you're also doing stem exercises, I'm just doing a lot," Scherzer said. "Now I'm throwing off a mound. Here comes the strength aspect part. I'm trying to get the endurance back. That's the biggest challenge in all of this, to know how much endurance will be there in my back when I actually get back out there. We want to make sure I'm as strong as possible so that, when I'm actually back in the game, I'll be good to go."

And from a mental side, Scherzer is not making any radical changes to his rehab based on what was bothering him earlier in the season. After missing 19 days, he returned July 25 to pitch against the Rockies at Nats Park.

"I can't approach it any differently," Scherzer said. "When I came back for the Colorado start, I was 100 percent. To sit here and say I'm more cautious or any other adjective you want to throw out there, it wouldn't apply, because I'm just trying to get back out there and pitch 100 percent. It's the same feeling from that Colorado start. It's a matter of managing that start, managing next start, managing how I feel after it and how I recover."

Update: In an intriguing power-vs.-power matchup in the top of the first inning, Juan Soto crushed a 3-2 changeup from Noah Syndergaard, sending it over the center field wall for a two-run homer, his 23rd of the season. Patrick Corbin has held the Mets to one hit with five strikeouts through the third inning. He struck out the side in the third.

The Nats lead 2-0 after three innings.

Update II: Just like Friday night, the Mets tallied back-to-back homers with two outs in the fourth inning. J.D. Davis and Wilson Ramos blasted solo homers off Corbin.

After four innings, the Nats and the Mets are even at 2-2.

Update III: Corbin finished six strong innings, allowing only two solo homers and one single and one walk. He struck out eight. He threw 94 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Mid-seventh, the Nats and the Mets are tied at 2-2.

Update IV: Soto slams a solo shot over right-center field wall off reliever Seth Lugo for his second round tripper on the night. The Nats led 3-2 in the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter Luis Guillorme hit his first Major League homer off of Fernando Rodney in the bottom of the eighth. The game was even again at 3-3.

With the bases loaded against Daniel Hudson, Davis launched a sacrifice fly to right field to score Joe Panik with the go-ahead run.

After eight innings, the Mets lead the Nats 4-3.

Update V: Facing Lugo again in the ninth, the Nats went 1-2-3. Pinch-hitter Gerardo Parra struck out on a high called third strike to end the game.

Final score: the Mets 4, the Nats 3.