The Washington Nationals are not expecting to get ace pitcher and top Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer back any time soon.
Scherzer, 35, last pitched for Washington on July 25. That came after a near three-week hiatus with a back injury.
Now on the injured list, Nationals manager Dave Martinez noted ahead of Wednesday’s game that Scherzer will likely miss at least one more start and potentially even more.
“Because he did come out not feeling good, I think the best thing is to make sure that he feels 100 percent, really,” Martinez said, via Jamal Collier of MLB.com. “Like I said, it’s frustrating for him, because he’s never been injured…. It’s been slower than he anticipated, but we’re heading in the right direction.”
Currently holding down the top spot in the National League Wild Card race at 60-53, Washington is in the midst of a big stretch heading into the latter third of the schedule. It’s also six games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.
Though, there’s no real reason to rush Scherzer back. He needs to be at 100 percent before taking to the bump again. That was not the case when he last pitched.
Scherzer continues to have dominating stuff. Thus far this season, the three-time Cy Young winner has pitched to a 9-5 record with a 2.41 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 189 strikeouts in 134.1 innings.