Scherzer, Nats pitchers face live hitters

VIERA, Fla. - Nationals pitchers threw to live hitters for the first time in spring training this morning. Though very few swings were taken, it does serve to be beneficial for pitchers to have actual hitters digging in the box as opposed to just throwing bullpen sessions. Fans scurried to the practice field where Max Scherzer was taking the mound to get a look at the newest Nats star.

"First time out there facing hitters and it actually seemed like I knew what I was doing," Scherzer said. "That's a good feeling. I would say I was at least putting the fastball where I wanted to today, but at the end of the day it's a live BP so let's check what we're actually talking about.

"It's just part of the process. Spring is just a process to get ready for the season. It doesn't matter how good or how bad you're doing as long as you are progressing forward, and today was just the first step."

Emmanuel Burris, Sandy Leon, Matt Skole, Kila Ka'aihue and Dan Butler were the five hitters who stepped in to face Scherzer.

"He threw his fastball down," Butler said. "It looked like he was throwing from both sides of the plate. It looked like he got better as he got more comfortable with hitters being in there. It looked like he was getting more comfortable throwing the breaking ball stuff. It looked like the breaking ball was sharp. As he got settled in with the hitters in there, the fastball was coming out. He was doing a good job of it."

No word yet on who will get the call to start Thursday's exhibition opener against the Mets at Space Coast Stadium. We'll get a report from Nationals manager Matt Williams this afternoon.

Scherzer started off today by asking Williams to join him for a rendition of the national anthem. The two stood side by side with their caps and sang and hummed "The Star-Spangled Banner" as baffled teammates and coaches walked by.

The 31-year-old Scherzer said he's been doing that for years and it was a regular practice back in Detroit.

"You've got to simulate it like it's a real game," Scherzer said. "Always. It's all about the little things. You've got to go as deep as possible and simulate every little thing."

Update: Williams said he just found out today this was a Scherzer ritual when the former Cy Young Award winner asked him to join along.

"I hum it on occasion, well never before a live BP session," Williams said while holding off laughter. "But it's a part of Max's thing. He always takes that break for the national anthem when he prepares to go start a game so he wanted to take the break, so we hummed it for him and made him feel comfortable in that regard so he could go out and do his live BP.

"I'm not sure what that tells me about him other than he pays attention to the national anthem, which is a good thing. But it's part of his routine. He always takes that break and then he fires five or six more balls and he's ready to go. We do all we can. We've got to coach them up, we do all we can to help them out."

Video below.

Today was photo day for Nats players and ESPN's traveling Sportscenter crew was on-site with John Kruk, Buster Olney and Silver Spring native Bram Weinstein. One of the interesting photo ops of the day came when the starting rotation lined up for a picture. As you can see below, Tanner Roark was included in the picture.