Teammates get hacks in against Scherzer in live BP session

VIERA, Fla. - The prospect of the first live batting practice session of the spring brought a little extra sense of excitement to Nationals camp this morning. That excitement, though, was dampened by the prospect of a major line of storms sweeping across Florida and supposedly set to barrel through the Space Coast smack dab during the middle of the workout.

Turns out, all they got was a little rain and some strong wind, nothing severe enough to disrupt the workout.

"The main thing is we dodged the rain," manager Dusty Baker said. "That was a miracle."

So as a few drops fell from the sky, Max Scherzer stepped to the mound on Field 3, positioning himself behind a protective "L" screen and then stared toward the cage to find Clint Robinson and Reed Johnson waiting to take their hacks.

And hack they did. Live BP sessions often feature only one or two swings per hitter, if that, but Robinson and Johnson enthusiastically went right after Scherzer. And enjoyed some success.

Both hitters made contact several times, with Robinson connecting on more than one occasion, including one poke off the center field wall. The lefty slugger wasn't about to start bragging, though.

"He's one of the best in the game," Robinson said. "We all know that. I'm sure he was probably at only 75-80 percent, if I had to guess. I wouldn't read too much into it. I'm not going to walk around tooting my own horn just yet."

For his part, Scherzer was perfectly fine with all the swings against him.

"Oh, I like it," he said. "I want them to swing. I want to get the feedback. If I'm hanging breaking pitches, I want to know it. That's the point. If I'm leaving fastballs over the middle, hit it. I want that to happen. I was most happy that I threw inside on a right-handed hitter and didn't hit him. That was my No. 1 goal. Hooray!"