Max Scherzer: "I'm extremely disappointed how the season turned out"

When the Nationals made the splash of the offseason by signing right-hander Max Scherzer to a blockbuster seven-year $210 million deal, most believed the move would catapult them to a World Series championship in 2015. But this year's Nationals team won't even get the chance to navigate its way through the playoffs after being eliminated by the National League East champion Mets last night.

"I'm extremely disappointed how the season turned out," Scherzer said in the Nats clubhouse this morning. "I congratulate the Mets. They beat us. They earned it. But at the same time, everybody in this clubhouse needs to reflect on what happened for this year and why we weren't able to achieve our goals."

Scherzer was asked if he was surprised to be answering questions about the Nationals' demise with eight games left in the season.

"Of course, yes," Scherzer shot back. "Why wouldn't I? It's not a disrespect to the Mets. Coming into this year, we thought we had a team that was capable of winning the division. And that was really the only mindset that I had coming into the year."

Scherzer repeatedly said during his introductory press conference in January that he chose to sign with Washington because he felt like the culture was built around winning. The former American League Cy Young award winner was coming from Detroit, where he had helped lead the Tigers to four straight playoff appearances, including a World Series appearance in 2012.

"I've been in the playoffs the past four years," Scherzer said. "I know, even being a division winner, how hard it is to win in the playoffs. You can have a great team and get bounced first round. And that's why all my focus was really 'how do we win the division?' For us collectively to not achieve our goal, it's very disappointing. For us, we need to figure out how we're gonna play better next year."

In a year loaded with numerous injuries, the Nationals found it difficult to find a groove. They never reached a level of consistently delivering high-level pitching and hitting for long stretches. But Scherzer isn't one for excuses.

"There's no 'what ifs,'" he said. "This is why you play 162. You go through the ups and downs. You go through injuries. Every team has to do it. Everybody has to go through it. We didn't do our job."

A major turning point in the season occurred when the Nats traveled to New York for a three-game series beginning just a couple of hours after the Mets closed out the trade deadline by signing slugger Yoenis Cespedes. New York went on to erase the Nats' three-game division lead with a devastating sweep in the series, which never saw Scherzer take the mound.

"In that series we took a good punch on the chin from them, but we also realized we were still in first place after getting swept there," Scherzer said. "So from our standpoint, we weren't overly fazed by that. They might have gotten confidence from it. We had just played three tight games with them. There were moments throughout the year where we rallied together and really thought we were gonna get on the righter ship, but at the end of the day, our losing streaks were longer than our winning streaks. And that's just not the recipe for success."

After dominating in the first half of the season, which included a near perfect game no-hitter and a one-hit shutout in back-to-back starts, Scherzer's production fell off greatly after the All-Star break. When the Nats needed their ace the most in August, Scherzer went 0-3 with a 6.43 ERA in five starts, while the Mets took a commanding division lead.

"It's a team effort," Scherzer said. "Everybody that's a part of this team had a role why we didn't have more success, including myself. I'll be critical of myself. There's things where I wish I could've pitched better. Even though I do feel like I'm a better pitcher, there's things I got to get better at in order to become a better pitcher.

"But that type of reflection has to go on from everybody in the organization. When you have the type of talent that we have in this clubhouse and we aren't able to succeed, everybody needs to reflect on what they need to do better to be able to do what they need to for 2016."