Scherzer out of sync on "flat" day for Nationals

MIAMI - Max Scherzer returned to the dugout after the second inning this afternoon, four runs already having crossed the plate against him, said a few words to Mike Maddux and then headed down the tunnel toward the clubhouse with his pitching coach for a few minutes, trying to figure out what exactly was going wrong in this game against the Marlins.

When Scherzer returned for the third inning, he did look like a different pitcher. He retired six straight batters on a total of 21 pitches and, if nothing else, gave his Nationals teammates a chance to mount a comeback.

By that point, though, it was too little, too late. The Nats already trailed by three runs, then four after Scherzer surrendered a two-out RBI double in the fifth. And they never came close to threatening that comeback, held hitless over the final seven innings of a 5-1 loss on what manager Dusty Baker called "kind of a flat day" for his club.

This was, indeed a blah ballgame for the Nationals, who wrapped up their road trip by splitting a four-game series in Miami after taking two of three in Philadelphia.

"We'd have liked to have gone three out of four here and win this series, but four-game series are really tough," Baker said. "It was a decent road trip, I'll say that. Could've been worse - that's what decent is - and could've been better."

It's hard to find fault with the Nationals in the big picture. They head home 11-4, tied for the moment with the Cubs for the best record in baseball. Bryce Harper is playing out of his mind, on pace at this very early stage for 86 homers and 238 RBIs. Daniel Murphy is hitting .404, slugging .673 and on pace for 227 hits. The pitching staff sports a 2.27 ERA, best in the majors. The bullpen's 2.13 ERA is second-best in the National League and much better than most observers of this club expected entering the season.

But games like this one do leave a sour taste in everyone's mouths. Especially when the table appeared to be set for something positive to occur.

When Harper launched his eighth homer of the young season (his sixth in the last eight days and his sixth in 27 career at-bats against Miami right-hander Tom Koehler) in the top of the first, he and his teammates had every reason to expect a big day.

"Yeah, when you get a run in the first, battle, have good at-bats, you think you're gonna put a lot of runs on the board," Harper said. "I think Koehler really came at us, stuck to his plan and did what he needed to do. Tip your cap to what he did today and move on."

Koehler's complete shutdown of the Nationals lineup after that - the only other hit he or four Marlins relievers allowed was Wilson Ramos' infield single in the top of the second - prevented the visitors from doing anything at the plate. But Scherzer's struggles on the mound left his teammates in a hole too big to escape.

From the outset, Scherzer didn't appear right. He needed 31 pitches to complete the first inning, then another 23 to make it through the second. In that time, he allowed four runs on five hits (including Marcell Ozuna's three-run homer) with two walks and a wild pitch. On a couple of occasions, he missed his intended target by two feet.

It wasn't inappropriate to wonder if something physically might have been wrong with Scherzer, though his manager insisted that wasn't the case.

"Physically, he was fine," Baker said. "He was just out of sync, and sometimes that happens. Max will be fine. We're not worried about Max. I just hope that Max isn't worried about Max."

Scherzer isn't the type to get particularly worried about himself. He has firmly established himself as one of baseball's best pitchers over the last four seasons, so he doesn't lack for confidence.

Scherzer is, however, a perfectionist. And so he found himself after this game trying to figure out what exactly was going wrong.

"When I reflected on the outing and I looked at video, I realized I'm just not finishing my pitches," he said. "I'm just not getting through the ball, and it's just not me. Threw some pitches today that were in the location that I'm happy with, and they got hits on. Sometimes that happens, and you tip your cap and move on. But also I'm aware of myself and I'm aware what I do well, and I generate swing-and-misses. And the swing-and-misses aren't there, and I feel like that's a lack of me just finishing my pitches and coming up with the right sequence."

To wit: Ichiro Suzuki fouled off a staggering nine pitches in his final two plate appearances against Scherzer in this game, seven of them coming with two strikes, five of them coming in succession in the bottom of the fifth. Each time, the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer wound up on base, setting the stage for rallies.

Scherzer doesn't believe it's a difficult fix for him to get over the problems he faced today.

"This is not a mechanical breakdown," he said. "This is not anything that it's going to take a month to do. It's just: 'Hey, here it is. Adjust, and let's go.' I can take a punch on the chin, come right back out and keep fighting. I've done it plenty of times in my career. I understand what you have to do, and you just have to own it. And for the next four days, go out there and do your work so you can go out there and have success."