Scherzer excited to open another season with Nationals

Right-hander Max Scherzer makes his second opening day start for the Nationals today at Atlanta and said he's not intimidated by taking the ball for the season's first game. Instead, he relishes the moment.

"It's an honor," Scherzer said Friday. "It's a really cool thing to be the opening day starter because the opening day is kind of a celebration of baseball. It's a kick start to the year. So to be a part of that and be on the mound for game one it's really cool."

Scherzer will be opposed by right-hander Julio Teheran in the final opening game at Turner Field before the Braves moves into a new ballpark next season.

Does Scherzer get nervous before season-opening starts?

"No. I've never really gotten nervous to play baseball," he said. "I'm always excited. I always want the ball. I always relish to get there and play. It's more anxiousness to get out there than, I'd say, goosebumps."

The Nationals, favored to win the division and go all the way to the World Series, battled injuries and struggled to an 83-79 record last year. Did that disappointing campaign fuel Scherzer to seek revenge this season?

"If you need a scenario of last year to motivate you to win, you need to check your motivations," Scherzer said. "You just need to motivate to just go out there to play to win because that's what you want to do. As disappointing as it was last year for us, your single motivation can only be about yourself and what you want to do as a team."

Besides new manager Dusty Baker, the Nationals also have a new pitching coach in Mike Maddux, who arrives from the Texas Rangers. Scherzer said Maddux brings new ideas for his game while on the mound.

"He has a different few ideas of what to look at (and) I think is really going to help me as we keep going forward," Scherzer said. "And now I really get to work with Mike now. In spring training, there's so many pitchers, you don't have that a lot of time with your pitching coach.

"But now, as the season goes, this is when you really get into the thick of things of how you handle different hitters and try to get on the same page. I try to tell my theories of pitching, what I want to accomplish out of different scenarios. If I reveal my playbook, maybe he can help me out a little bit better."

Scherzer says that Maddux has worked hard in making sure his pitchers know they are in control of the game on the mound and can dictate to the hitter what will happen next.

"He really talks to us about the mental side of the game," Scherzer said. "The fine tunings of what it takes to try to be as successful as possible. That's been a joy for me to actually have somebody with that type of intellect to be able to articulate different things of when you're in different situations, that you're the guy with the ball. They're in trouble, not you."

What a spring it was for the Nationals, as they went 19-4-4, their best record in their short existence in D.C. and the best in the major leagues in March. Scherzer knows that doesn't mean much when the real games begin today, but he said it did show something very valuable for the club this season.

"As an organization, we showed a lot of depth, we showed depth at multiple positions," Scherzer said. "The fact that we're going into the season healthy should allow us to come out of the gates pretty well. It's going to be a chance for us to have a really good year, a really fun year.

"If guys do get banged up a little bit, it does appear that we have a lot of depth throughout the organization to be able to fill holes that keep the train moving. That's one thing that I've seen in spring, I think, that can really help us going forward into the year."

It is Scherzer's sophomore season with the Nationals. That first season certainly provided good experience for the veteran, but he also is feeling his age a bit with all the new faces in the clubhouse.

"I think it feels different in year two because I'm realizing how much older I am than all these other guys," Scherzer smiled. "I'm realizing at 31, you feel pretty old in that clubhouse when you got 23-year-olds in there that barely even know the O.J. trial even happened. That's the stuff I'm dealing with."

Scherzer also doesn't care if the Mets are favored to win the division by several publications, with the Nationals hunting instead of being the hunted this season.

"Really doesn't matter," he said. "I would actually rather be the team that's favored to win it all because that means that we'd have the best team. I enjoy expectations, I enjoy pressure. At this level, you have to be able to handle that type of pressure."

Just like Scherzer did with a no-hitter against the Mets to end last season. This time around, he would love a personal milestone like that be in a game that actually lifted the Nationals to a division title.