Scherzer's neck strong enough, returns to form in Nats' 3-2 win

Six days ago in Miami, Max Scherzer threw one warm-up pitch to begin the second inning way outside and quickly walked off the mound towards the dugout.

Seeing their ace pitcher in discomfort, manager Dusty Baker, Nationals players and fans were concerned about a worst-case scenario.

When a pitcher as strong and resilient as Scherzer leaves before the second inning begins, in a game where he had hit a home run himself, it has to be pretty bad, doesn't it?

It turned out to be a neck spasm. This week Scherzer saw a chiropractor and had his neck adjusted.

Almost a week later, facing the same opponent, this time at home, he worked a no-decision quality start for a total of 114 pitches. The seven innings and just two runs allowed signified again that Scherzer is one of the best at his craft.

The Nats pushed across a run in the bottom of the eighth on an Adam Lind single to break a tie and down the Marlins 3-2. Brandon Kintzler (4-2) earned the win with a scoreless eighth. Sean Doolittle notched his ninth overall save with a solid ninth.

The Nats have now won three of four and evened the season series with Miami at 5-5. More importantly, they are now 22 games above .500 at 66-44.

Scherzer allowed a home run to Giancarlo Stanton and a RBI single to an opposing pitcher.

One precarious moment occurred just after the Stanton blast that had evened the game at 2-2. Faced with a man on third and no outs in the sixth, he worked a flyout and then struck out J.T. Realmuto and Derek Dietrich to end a threat that could have put the Marlins on top.

Scherzer was tested again in the seventh as the pitch count continued to rise. After recording two outs, he walked Ichiro Suzuki on four pitches. A meeting on the mound with pitching coach Mike Maddux showed Scherzer doing most of the talking. He stayed in and struck out Dee Gordon to end the threat and his night.

"That inning was so much fun," Scherzer said. "That's when everything's on the line. Every pitch matters, and you gotta go out there and execute. I was able to get a couple quick outs against some guys, and then unfortunately walked Ichiro on four straight pitches.

"I knew kind of how to pitch Gordon. I know if you leave some pitches over the middle, he can do damage against you. (Catcher Matt) Wieters did a good job back there sequencing, how he set him up. Got a good belt-in fastball, and then threw a cutter in to collect the strikeout, and that was a big out."

Bryce Harper hit home run No. 150 of his young career in the fourth, the 29th of his season, to extend the Nats' early lead to 2-0. He said he wasn't worried about Scherzer and his neck issue.

"It's just part of baseball, part of sports," Harper said. "He went out there with all the confidence in the world to pitch a game. If he can do that, then we're all good."

Baker felt that the Odrisamer Despaigne RBI single that cut the lead to 2-1 taxed Scherzer as the start went along.

"Yeah, I mean he was pretty sharp really," Baker said. "His endurance was good. The blow that kind of messed him up and messed us up was that pitcher's two-strike RBI. That's what got them on the board. He was really dealing before that.

"He gave us all he had. We were thinking about taking him out with Gordon, that's why I sent Mike out there, Maddux out there, but he assured us that he was fine and he had enough to get the hitter out."

But Scherzer did say even with the start going well, his neck was on his mind. He admitted it will take some time to get it back to 100 percent.

"It wasn't bothering me today," Scherzer said. "It was just a little weak. My neck's a little weak. I just gotta stay on top of it, just do the football exercises and strengthen my neck up. It's really not a big deal."