:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63283287/usa_today_12376857.0.jpg)
Through five outings this Spring, Max Scherzer, who is set to start Washington’s first game of the 2019 campaign next Thursday in Nationals Park, has given up 18 hits, three walks, and 10 earned runs (4.58 ERA), with 22 strikeouts in 19 2⁄3 innings pitched, over which he’s held opposing hitters to a combined .237 AVG.
Scherzer picked up nine of his strikeouts in Grapefruit League action from the 22 batters he faced last time out before tonight, piling up Ks in a six-inning, 86-pitch effort against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“He was really good,” manager Dave Martinez told reporters, as quoted by MLB.com’s Jamal Collier after that game.
“And he knows it’s getting to be that time. He’s got one more outing after this and then it’s game time.”
Scherzer is set to start the Nationals’ season opener against the New York Mets on 3/28.
He said after the start vs the Cards that he still had some things to work on, mainly dealing with execution, before he takes the mound in the nation’s capital next week.
The runner-up to the 2018 NL Cy Young, who took home the award in each of the previous two seasons, Scherer gets one more opportunity to fine-tune things before he starts in a game that counts when the Nats take on the Miami Marlins tonight in Grapefruit League action in Jupiter, FL’s Roger Dean Stadium, in a 7:05 PM EDT start.
Tonight’s game is available (in audio form only) via MLB’s At Bat app, though you will get to watch each of the next two games at least ... before you can watch all of them starting next week.
HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR TONIGHT’S GAME:
#Nats at #Marlins (7:05 PM EDT; only via MLB’s At Bat app): Adam Eaton RF; Trea Turner SS; Juan Soto LF; Anthony Rendon 3B; Ryan Zimmerman DH; Matt Adams 1B; Brian Dozier 2B; Yan Gomes C; Victor Robles CF; Max Scherzer RHP.
— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) March 22, 2019