Back on mound, Nats' Scherzer pleased with bullpen session

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Washington pitcher Max Scherzer was pleased with his first bullpen session after being scratched from a scheduled start.

“It was good, was able to throw all pitches,” Scherzer said Thursday.

The 35-year-old right-hander missed Tuesday's game because of fatigue in the muscles on the right side of his body, in the area of the latissimus dorsi, serratus and oblique muscles. Scherzer is to pitch next in an intrasquad scrimmage.

“We just want him to go down there and get his work in and be in a controlled environment,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “We're just going to try to get him his five or six innings.”

Scherzer has made three spring training starts. He last pitched on March 3, allowing two runs in 3 1/3 innings.

A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer was 11-7 with a 2.92 ERA last year, when he pitched 172 1/3 innings during the regular season and 30 more in the postseason. He endured two separate stints on the injured list last season, the first time with inflammation under his right shoulder and the second, after making one return start, with a rhomboid strain.