It looks like Max Scherzer is more than ready for Opening Day.

In his final Grapefruit League tuneup before the regular season, Scherzer gave up three runs in seven innings in Friday’s 5-5 tie with the Marlins, striking out 12 batters without issuing a walk. No pitcher had recorded as many strikeouts in a Spring Training game in nearly four years, when Tyson Ross recorded 12 strikeouts for the Padres on March 28, 2015, against the Rangers, according to Nationals baseball communications.

“I wasn't necessarily trying to strike a lot of guys out,” said Scherzer, who led all of baseball with 300 strikeouts in 2018. “Was just trying to throw the ball in the zone. … What I wasn't going to get worried about was what my final line was going to look like, just wanted to be attacking the zone and feel what all my offspeed pitches were like in the zone.”

Scherzer filled up the strike zone Friday night, tossing 72 of his 96 pitches for strikes -- his velocity also climbed as the game went on. Scherzer believes a true measuring stick of an outing comes over the final 15 pitches or so, when he has to push through fatigue to record the final outs.

So he was happy with how strongly he finished the final two innings, sitting through a long top of the seventh in which the Nats sent seven batters to the plate, and the Marlins made a pitching change. Still, Scherzer came back firing after the long break to toss a scoreless seventh inning.

“That's kind of what I was measuring this outing on,” Scherzer said. ‘How I pitch in the sixth and seventh inning, and how I was executing pitches at that point in time. Everything looks good. I'm ready for the season.”

The next time Scherzer takes the mound will come next Thursday at Nationals Park when the Nationals host the Mets in a matchup with defending Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom. Scherzer has spent the spring building up to this point, fine-tuning the execution of each pitch until he gets it as close to ready as possible. He completed his outing Friday, happy with his status and judging by his performance, he has good reason to be.

“He did a lot of Max things,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He’s ready. He’s been ready. For him to come out and have an outing like that, now we just got to get him through six days. But he’s ready for Opening Day.”