Washington Nationals vs Boston Red Sox: Grapefruit League GameThread; Max Scherzer start No. 3...

Max Scherzer held the Boston Red Sox to one hit over three scoreless innings last time out, striking out four of the ten batters he faced in a 39-pitch effort on the road.

This afternoon, the Washington Nationals’ ace is back on the hill in West Palm Beach, FL, to take on the Sox again in his third start in Grapefruit League action.

Scherzer threw 44 pitches in his first outing, but after working efficiently through three last time out, he should be on the mound for four or more innings this afternoon in a game that is being broadcast live on MASN at 1:05 PM EST, and he’s going to pick up a bat for the first time as well.

Scherzer talked earlier this Spring about his goals in Spring Training, which predictably, are all about improving on his already-impressive game.

“It’s always to get better. Get better every single year. Find weaknesses in your game and continue to improve them,” he said, “and I’m not going to go into the exact details of what I’ve been dreaming up, but I’ve been definitely critiquing myself and I’ve been doing my homework to figure out what I want to do and come up with new ideas of what I want to execute on the mound, and this is fun.”

The fun continues this afternoon in start No. 3 for the runner-up to the 2018 NL Cy Young award. After working with Yan Gomes in each of his first two outings, Scherzer is working with Pedro Severino this afternoon. He had a 2.65 ERA and a .183/.239/.345 line against in 102 IP with the young catcher behind the plate in 2018. Though he’ll likely be working with Gomes and Kurt Suzuki this season, getting work in with one of the other backstops in the organization makes sense too in case any injury issues crop up during the regular season.

Today’s game, as mentioned above, is available on MASN (and MLB.tv). With Scherzer on the mound, what else are you going to be doing at 1:05? Work? C’mon...