WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- With less than two weeks to go before he takes the mound for Opening Day, Max Scherzer saw a chance to treat his start in Saturday’s 8-5 loss to the Cardinals similar to a regular-season start. 

It was Scherzer’s penultimate Grapefruit League outing, and he was facing a lineup missing many of St. Louis’ regulars, advantageous for Scherzer, who is always wary of exposing his pitching plan to hitters he will face during the regular season. And Scherzer turned in his finest outing of the spring. 

He limited the Cardinals to one run on four hits in six innings, retiring 14 consecutive batters at one point before he finished the afternoon with nine strikeouts and no walks.

“He was really good,” manager Dave Martinez said. “And he knows it’s getting to be that time. He’s got one more outing after this and then it’s game time.”

Yes, Scherzer appears to be all but ready for his matchup with the Mets and Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom on March 28 for Opening Day at Nationals Park. He was happy with his aggressiveness and intensity. His off-speed pitches were sharp. And he finished the final inning strong even when he pushed his pitch count further than it had been in the past. 

But for Scherzer, ever the perfectionist, he still identified a few areas he wants to fine-tune before the regular season begins. 

“There’s a few small things I still need to refine,“ Scherzer said. “There’s some executions that I can continue to execute a little bit better. But for the intensity -- basically from the first inning through the first five innings -- to be able to be that strong, especially through those five, that was a good sign today. And something I look forward to taking into the regular season with.”

Doolittle struggles for the first time this spring

Sean Doolittle called his outing Saturday afternoon something of a wake-up call after he surrendered five runs and recorded just two outs while attempting to lock down the ninth inning. His first four outings of the spring had gone without issue, one hit in four scoreless innings with three strikeouts and no walks.

Doolittle, who throws fastballs nearly 90 percent of the time during the regular season, wanted to focus on mixing in his off-speed pitches, but the Cardinals were all over him. They rallied back from down a 5-3 deficit in the ninth to score five runs on a walk and four hits, capped by a three-run homer from Andrew Knizner. The homer came on Doolittle’s 28th pitch of the afternoon, and he admitted he ran out of stamina by the end of it. 

“My first four outings I kind of [sleepwalked] through them,” Doolittle said. “I wish it wasn’t that harsh, but there’s a lot of good teaches in that outing.”

Up next

The Nationals host the Mets on Sunday afternoon at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach. Stephen Strasburg will take the bump for his fourth start of the spring. He has given up two runs in 10 2/3 innings with 13 strikeouts and five walks. First pitch is at 1:05 p.m. ET.