Washington Nationals at St. Louis Cardinals: Grapefruit League GameThread...

Things got ugly after Max Scherzer left the mound last time out in a 56-pitch, 3 ¹⁄₃-inning outing against the Boston Red Sox in West Palm Beach.

Scherzer allowed four hits and a walk, and he was charged with five earned runs overall, three of which scored once the Washington Nationals’ ace exited the game.

Asked for his thoughts on the outing, Scherzer talked with reporters about what he saw when he looked back at footage of the start.

“There was some good and there was some bad,” he explained. “I thought all my offspeed pitches were actually really good. I’m really starting to get a feel for mixing and matching and working between all the offspeed pitches, the slider, cutter, curveball, and changeup. So that was encouraging. My fastball, just felt like I was a little mechanically working side to side. I think my top-half is kind of drifting towards third base after my balance point, and that’s kind of causing me to fly back open to try to pull the ball, and a lot of times it looked like on film my fastball was kind of moving east-west instead of trying to be directly going towards the plate and working in more of a north-south fashion.”

Through three starts and 8 ¹⁄₃ IP this Spring, the Nationals’ starter has now given up eight hits, two walks, and six earned runs, striking out 11 and holding opposing hitters to a .250 batting average.

He makes his fourth start in Grapefruit League action this afternoon when the Nats take on the St. Louis Cardinals at 1:05 PM EDT from Jupiter, Florida’s Roger Dean Stadium. It’s radio-only for today’s game, via MLB’s At Bat app, and it’s the Cards’ feed, but at least we can all listen in.

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR TODAY’S GAME: