Is Max Scherzer on schedule to pitch first game of postseason?

Right-hander Max Scherzer was moved from his scheduled start of Sunday night against the second-place Mets to Monday afternoon against the last-place Braves. Many felt it might have been a better choice to keep Scherzer where he was against the team that had a better chance of catching the Nationals or securing a wild card spot.

Scherzer went out and delivered anyway, going seven innings and allowing two runs in the Nationals' 6-4 victory over Atlanta.

The loss snapped the Braves' win streak at a season-high six games.

"I know the Braves might have one of the weakest records in the league, but they have a good lineup," Scherzer said. "Those guys come out and they're tough. Especially when you talk about in division, they've seen me a handful of times now. This is a real challenge. You can have the scouting report, but now it's way beyond that. They know what I have. They know how I'm trying to pitch them and they're trying to make adjustments off of that. You really gotta be on top of your game.

"They do a great job of fouling pitches off and fighting off ABs, that it's tough to always put them away. That's why some of those counts there, they were able to get some hits in some situations. It's tough to get them out consistently throughout the whole year.

"That's what makes this great. When you're playing 162 games, playing these guys 19 times, you're going to be exposed. When you're in that situation, you've gotta come up with everything you've got to find ways to get them out."

The Nationals are 12-2 against Atlanta this season. But Scherzer said that doesn't mean it's been an easy run. He had to alter his strategy each of the five times he's faced the Braves this season. He worked with catcher Jose Lobaton and pitching coach Mike Maddux on ways to get the Braves out.

"You try and get recognition on certain swings, certain pitches and certain swings in certain counts," Scherzer said. "You try to decipher, 'Hey, what's going on here?' It's conversations with Loby and Mad Dog in between innings. 'I saw this, all right, now we know he's doing this so maybe we should try this.' You kind of have that instinct before the game to know what certain guys are going to try to do against you and try to come up with that next pitch that's going to work. That's the hardest part about this game is trying to get these guys out consistently.

"They're a tough lineup over there. If you look at the middle of the lineup over there, that's as good as really any middle of the lineup in the league. They really present some challenges from the left and right side. You really gotta be in command of every single one of your pitches if you want to try to get them out."

With the dust cleared on Monday, the Nationals have maintained an 8 1/2-game lead over the Mets in the National League East with 25 games to play. The elimination number is 17. Scherzer reiterated it's all on his team and not what others do.

"It's us. I believe in this group," Scherzer said. "I believe in this talent. If we go out there and do our jobs, we can win this division. I know we're up big, but I've also seen big leads blown. That's why, if you look at any of those teams that have lost big leads, it's always because they go home because they felt like they didn't do their job. If you just focus on doing your job ... look, the Mets are good and the Marlins are good. I respect them, but I don't care about them. I want us to just win. If we win, we're going to win."

The Nationals have nine games remaining on this homestand and play 16 of their final 25 games at home. They are 39-26 at home.

If Scherzer stays on this schedule, he will miss the Mets again when they come to Nationals Park from Sept. 12-14. Scherzer's next three schedule starts are: Sept. 10 against the Phillies, Sept. 16 at Atlanta and Sept. 21 at Miami.

His final two possible starts of the regular season are Sept. 27 against Arizona and the last game of the regular season, Oct. 2 against Miami. That brings up another interesting question. Would the Nats bump Scherzer again so that he starts the first game of the postseason instead of what is likely a meaningless final home game against the Marlins? It would seem so.

Plus, the Nats would likely space out his second-to-last start so he won't have to wait eight days between his last start and the first game of the playoffs.