Cerebral Scherzer trying to stay a step ahead of hitters

JUPITER, Fla. - Max Scherzer often makes his craft look so effortless that it's easy to forget that he's part of a perpetual thinking man's exercise that requires a pitcher to constantly adjust and readjust both plan of attack and expectations.

So, after winning back-to-back Cy Young Awards, here was the Nationals ace using an innocuous spring training start to try to integrate a few new wrinkles into his repertoire, just in case the hitters have caught up to him and think they've figured him out.

After spinning four innings of one-hit ball at the Cardinals, walking one and striking out four, Scherzer waxed poetic on the cat-and-mouse game that colors each one-on-one battle that comprises an outing.

"I absolutely love it," he said. "You keep getting into this game and keep facing guys over and over and over. They really start keying on all your tendencies, especially in the division. So to keep getting those guys out in the division - and there's some good hitters in our division - you constantly have to be evolving, finding new ways to get better."

The Cardinals were his practice fodder today, an outing that lasted 55 pitches and saw Scherzer spot in a few more curveballs than he usually does. Beyond that, Scherzer wasn't letting on to what he was trying to do with his third Grapefruit League start, which ended in a 4-3 Cardinals victory.

"There's things I am (working on), but you gotta use your StatCast to figure out what I'm doing," he said.

One thing he wasn't doing was giving in on a full count. When Greg Garcia worked the count to 3-2 in the second, Scherzer challenged him with a 96 mph fastball and lost. Garcia hammered the heater over the wall in right-center, tying the game at 1-1.

"I really wanted to see where my curveball was at, so I threw some extra curveballs today," Scherzer said. "I like where that was at. I fell behind some hitters today, too many 2-0 counts. But only one walk and attacked the zone. I'd rather give up the home run than walk somebody, so go ahead and hit the home run now in spring on a 3-2 count."

Garcia's homer was one of three balls the Cards hit to the outfield; fly balls to center by Tommy Pham and to left by Andrew Knizner in the third were the others. Scherzer got two ground balls and a couple of popups to finish an outing that looked more like midseason form than the first week of March.

"Every time you watch him pitch, he has a game plan, whether it's in spring training or in the bullpen," manager Davey Martinez said. "He's always got a game plan, he's always working on something. He looked really good. He's gotta be fun to watch."

Last offseason, a stress fracture in his right ring finger had Scherzer a bit behind the other pitchers in camp, yet he still found time to refine his cutter and even went to a three-fingered grip so he could throw his fastball without any pain while the injury healed.

"You always have to reinvent yourself and keep evolving as a pitcher," Scherzer said. "Every single year, you have to come up with new ways to get guys out because everybody's game planning against you, looking at everything you do, coming up with every little pattern that you throw. With the data they have now, the line between good and bad is shrinking every single year. You constantly have to try to be evolving and be ahead of the hitters, come up with new pitches and new ways to attack guys, so you're always one step ahead."

What better time to try new things out than in spring training, when even those attempts that don't go as planned amount to a mulligan once the season begins?

"It's only because I've had enough failure and had success in the same right that the experience has taught me I got to have more," Scherzer said. "I need a curveball, I need a cutter if I want to be able to navigate these lineups multiple times through. That's what I've found. That's where I've had success to keep evolving. Nothing's different for 2018."