Washington Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer tosses three scoreless vs Boston Red Sox... then things get ugly, 13-5 Sox final

Max Scherzer threw 44 pitches last time out, in his first start of the Spring, giving up a solo shot to center field in the first at bat of the game, then completing two innings overall over which he gave up three hits and a walk.

“There was some good and bad from this outing,” Scherzer told reporters, as quoted by Washington Post writers Jesse Dougherty after that start.

“My fastball location was a little off, my tempo was a little off, I mean those are just between-year fixes that I can get back out there and . . . I need to pick up my tempo and that’s when usually everything sinks in, and my fastball location comes off that. That’s an easy nip in the bud.”

Davey Martinez told reporters before the game this afternoon that he had planned on taking Scherzer to 35-ish pitches in his initial outing, and expected to go to around 50 today.

Scherzer worked around a two-out single in an 11-pitch bottom of the first in his second start of Spring Training when he faced the Boston Red Sox on the road in Ft. Myers, FL’s JetBlue Park.

Scherzer took the mound in the second inning with a 3-0 lead courtesy of a solo bomb by Matt Adams and a two-run double by Pedro Severino, and retired the side in order in a 15-pitch frame.

It was 5-0 in the third when Scherzer struck out the side in a 13-pitch frame that left him at 39 pitches total (with four Ks).

Mt. Adams: Matt Adams hit a hanging curve from Red Sox’ right-hander Hector Velazquez way out to right field in his first at bat of the afternoon, then with runners on the corners in the top of the third, Adams lined a two-run double to right that put the Nationals up 4-0 before a sac fly by Carter Kieboom made it a 5-0 game.

Fedde Struggles and other bullpen notes: Erick Fedde followed Max Scherzer on the mound, taking over in the fourth, and giving up four straight one-out hits as the Sox got on the board with Brock Holt and Blake Swihart’s RBI singles driving in the first runs of the game for the home team, 5-2.

Fedde returned to the mound in the fifth and gave up line drives galore, with the Red Sox scoring three more on him before he was lifted and eight runs total scored in the inning as the Sox jumped out to a 10-5 lead.

Kyle McGowin took over for Fedde and gave up a three-run blast and two RBI singles before he finally got out of the fifth inning.

Ronald Pena gave up two runs in the sixth inning before he was lifted (but we’d really stopped paying attention at that point), 12-5 Sox, and 13-5 after a run scored with J.J. Hoover on the mound.

Austin Voth tossed a scoreless inning in the bottom of the seventh inning, and came back out with a 1-2-3 frame in the eighth...

But the Nationals came up empty in the top of the ninth. Ballgame. 13-5 Red Sox.