Scherzer lasts only five innings, homers hurt in 5-2 loss

ATLANTA-- Max Scherzer allowed only three runs in a rain-delayed loss Saturday. But he again surrendered home runs. The Braves racked up two of them: a two-run shot for Rio Ruiz, his first career roundtripper, and a Matt Kemp solo homer.

Scherzer (4-3) has now given up nine homers in his past six starts. At five innings of work, this game was his shortest stint against the Braves since 2009, when he was still with the Diamondbacks.

Leading 3-2 when the game was delayed, Atlanta went on to win 5-2, guaranteeing a series victory. More importantly, it was the Nationals' fourth straight loss, a new season high.

Last month the Nationals started a 10-game road trip by sweeping the Braves in three games here at SunTrust Park. Atlanta is one win away from returning the favor.

The Nationals offense managed two runs off of veteran Bartolo Colón in the fifth, highlighted by back-to-back RBI singles from Trea Turner and Jayson Werth. But they were unable to make it a bigger inning.

The Braves bullpen was on display again, showing off their set roles. Jose Ramirez, Arodys Vizcaíno and Jim Johnson kept the Nationals off the board in the final three innings to secure the victory.

But the Nats bullpen struggled to keep the game close again. Blake Treinen gave up a run in his only inning of work. Matt Albers later surrendered a Tyler Flowers solo shot.

The rain delay spanned one hour and 50 minutes. When the teams came back onto the field, Scherzer was done. Afterwards, he said he didn't like his fastball.

"Just couldn't find a way to consistently throw strikes," Scherzer said. "Just deep counts on everybody and just wasn't able to go out there and put length. Didn't have fastball command. Just didn't do a lot of the things right today. A lot of things that are a staple of what I think make me a successful pitcher I just didn't do. Just could never find a rhythm."

"He didn't have his usual control, and usually when he gets two strikes on a hitter he usually puts them away," manager Dusty Baker said. "He had two strikes on the hitter and then walked him, and then he had two strikes on the young Ruiz and got a ball out over the plate, and right now they're not missing them."

Scherzer sat down with pitching coach Mike Maddux in game to try to figure out a solution to his command issue.

"I was talking with Mad Dog in between innings, just trying to find anything, and nothing really seemed to stick," Scherzer said. "But there's worse things in the world than - as frustrating as that is - to only give up three runs in that scenario. It could've been a lot of worse. Like Mad Dog says, it's how good your bad."

Scherzer scattered four hits with three walks and six strikeouts in his shortest outing of the season, throwing 106 pitches, 62 for strikes.

A fastball pitcher who loses fastball command has to be a difficult proposition, especially when it happens early in a start. Scherzer documented what he attempted to do to fight through it.

"Real tough, because then you're searching for all your off-speed pitches," Scherzer said. "You're searching for your slider, you're searching for your curveball, changeup. That was the only saving grace, the only thing that kept me in the ballgame and kept us from blowing open, is that I did have slider command.

"I was able to throw my slider for strikes, able to somehow locate that pitch. But this would be going back to the drawing board. Figure out what I need to do mechanically, go have a good 'pen, flush this out and have a good start next time."

Catcher Matt Wieters said Scherzer wasn't going to give up just because he had trouble locating his fastball as he does normally. But Wieters noticed it wasn't just the fastball he had trouble spotting.

"Max is still going to compete, whether he has his best stuff or not his best stuff," Wieters said. "I think today was by far the least command he's had with his fastball. And his curveball he really couldn't get going for a second.

"His slider was good most of the game, and his changeup was here and there in spots. He still battled and only give up three in five with only really one pitch he could lean on. I know Max will put the time in over these next four days and get it figured out and get back to being the Max that we have seen.

Scherzer felt he knew what went wrong on the two homers.

"They were probably fastballs over the middle part of the plate," Scherzer said. "I know that on Kemp. I'm pretty sure that was the case on Ruiz as well. So that's just things - I just got to be better in those situations."