Max Scherzer's thumb still swollen, Stephen Strasburg back at it

MIAMI - Nationals ace Max Scherzer is still experiencing pain in his right thumb, two days after jamming it while hitting a ground ball in his second at-bat in Thursday's loss to the Cardinals.

As a result, Scherzer didn't throw his scheduled bullpen session today.

"It's still a little sore and swollen, so we pushed his bullpen today," Nats manager Matt Williams said. "So we'll see how it goes after today. But it's swollen. When you get in the extremities, it's difficult to move that blood out of there, that swelling out of there."

"What we don't want is him to go out there, even in a side, and adjust his grip or adjust the way he throws in a bullpen and have something else go haywire. We don't want that."

Williams indicated that Scherzer will have to get a throwing session in before he's cleared to make his next start on Tuesday in Atlanta.

"We'd need to make sure that he can effectively throw all of his pitches and there's only one way to do that and that's get him on a mound," Williams said.

Center fielder Denard Span really tested the results of his two offseason surgeries in last night's game by making a couple of sensational running catches and stealing his first base. Williams is resting the 31-year-old for this afternoon's contest.

"I don't think he's fully back yet," Williams said. "After yesterday's game, his legs were really heavy. But that's part of the process. If you play every day, your legs get heavy anyway. What we have make sure that we're mindful of is that we don't push him too hard because this a long-term thing. We have a lot games left and we need to make sure that he's healthy for the rest of the season."

"It's not great timing for us, but we have to do it looking out for his long-term health"

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg is hoping to carry the momentum of his previous start into today. After two shaky outings to start the season, Strasburg dominated the Phillies last Sunday, allowing just one run in 7 1/3 innings and striking out seven.

"I think that, for him, the key is fastball location, certainly," Williams said. "But last time out, he threw his breaking ball and his changeup whenever he wanted to. And threw it early in counts for strikes, stealing strikes. Threw it to get back in counts."

"If we know anything about this club, they hit fastballs. They like to hit the fastball, especially against Stephen. They seem very aggressive against him. So the key for him will be able to throw his off-speed or secondary stuff for strikes early. And that's what he did last time. That's probably the best I've seen the last time out. Hopefully, more of the same today."

The Nationals' start has certainly not gone the way they or the rest of baseball expected. However, though the 7-10 record isn't good, the Nats are only minus-4 in run differential. Aside from injuries, they've dealt with fielding miscues, untimely hitting and late-inning bullpen breakdowns. Yet there remains a feeling that they aren't far from putting it all together.

"It's frustrating a little bit because we are close and we do have opportunities," Williams said. "I think we're close. Our starting pitching has been very good and they're keeping us in games. We haven't come through as many times as we'd like to, but that will happen. They key for us is just to grind. We have to keep doing that. We're not where we want to be, for sure, but I think we're close to getting to the point where we can win some games here."

Some more hope is around the corner, as third baseman Anthony Rendon takes another step in his rehab tonight. He'll play seven innings in his second game at Double-A Harrisburg after going 1-for-2 with a double last night.