Scherzer throws, able to start potential Game 7

HOUSTON - If there's a Game 7 to the 2019 World Series, Max Scherzer will start it for the Nationals.

Manager Davey Martinez made that proclamation late this afternoon after Scherzer completed a 10-minute throwing session in left field at Minute Maid Park and reported himself good to go just two days after he was scratched from his scheduled Game 5 start and received a cortisone injection in his neck.

"He threw, he felt good," Martinez said. "We'll see what transpires between now and tonight. But he says he feels good. So, yeah, as of right now, he'll definitely start Game 7."

It would be a dramatic turn of events for Scherzer, who only 48 hours ago admitted he couldn't lift his arm fully or turn his neck due to an irritated nerve that had bothered him for a couple of days but completely locked up when he awoke Sunday morning.

The right-hander received a cortisone shot that day, though, and said he hoped he'd be able to attempt to throw after a 48-hour wait. He wore a neck brace on the team's charter flight Monday and sat in first class - "so he had a lot of room," Martinez said with a laugh - and then reported to the ballpark today to test things out throwing pitches from a full windup on flat ground.

Scherzer did throw at full velocity, but no pitcher (healthy or not) would do that the day before a start. He emerged from the session feeling confident, giving bullpen catcher Octavio Martinez a high five and then walking back to the dugout and toward the visitors' clubhouse pleased with the results.

"Today he looked normal, just like any other day he throws flat ground," Martinez said. "He looked really good. Hoping he progresses from here to tomorrow. My guess is he comes out tomorrow and he's going to get prepared like he prepares any other game, and he's ready to go and you're going to see Max be Max."

Martinez said he would not consider using Scherzer in relief of Stephen Strasburg in tonight's must-win Game 6. But the manager did say he would expect a full-fledged start out of the 35-year-old ace Wednesday night, with no unusual restrictions.

"If Max tells me tonight that he's good, then Max will pitch until his neck decides he can't pitch anymore," Martinez said. "I can't see myself telling Max: 'You're only going to go 75 pitches.' He's going to want to go out there and go as long as he can."

Not that there wouldn't be any risks. Scherzer admitted Sunday he was worried that if he tried to pitch "something seriously, seriously could go wrong." The effects of the cortisone shot obviously have alleviated some of the concern, but Scherzer still could be in danger of suffering further injury without necessarily being able to feel it.

"If you know Max like I know Max, ... he's got to look at the whole big picture," Martinez said. "He feels good today, and that's all I know. So we'll see, and we'll determine how he feels come tomorrow."

And if it happens? If the Nationals win tonight and force a Game 7 and Scherzer comes back to pitch and possibly lead the Nationals to their first World Series title?

"They'd probably make a movie about it, I bet, if he could," right fielder Adam Eaton said. "He could come back from the dead."