Washington Nationals vs New York Mets: Grapefruit League GameThread - Max Scherzer vs the Mets at night...

In his third start of the Spring last week, Washington Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer held the St. Louis Cardinals to one run on one hit (a solo homer by Cardinals’ third baseman Greg Garcia on a 3-2 pitch) over four innings on the mound in Jupiter, FL’s Roger Dean Stadium.

The outing left Scherzer, the winner of back-to-back NL Cy Young awards, with a 2.00 ERA (2 ER in 9 IP) in Grapefruit League action in 2018, one walk, 12 Ks, and a .069 BAA so far in Spring Training.

Just pitching all the pitchers,” Scherzer told reporters when asked about his work in that start after he was done for the day.

“I really wanted to see where my curveball was at, threw some extra curveballs today, so I like where that was at. Fell behind some hitters today, too many 2-0 counts, but only one walk, and attacked the zone, and I’d rather give up a home run than walk somebody, so go ahead and hit the home run now in Spring in a 3-2 count.”

Tonight, Scherzer is back in West Palm Beach, FL’s FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches taking on the New York Mets in the first night game of the Spring, which is on MASN and the MLB Network in the nation’s capital, and on 106.7 the FAN in D.C.

Behind the right-hander, a mix of veterans and roster hopefuls are in the lineup. No Daniel Murphy yet. No Adam Eaton. No Ryan Zimmerman.

But we will get another look at Victor Robles in center field, and Jose Marmolejos at first base.

Slimmed-down Matt Wieters is behind the plate, so we get to see what his work with new hitting coach Kevin Long has changed.

HERE’S THE FULL NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR TONIGHT’S GAME VS THE METS: