When the Nationals dipped below .500 on July 4 last summer, Washington's veterans called a players-only meeting.
That sparked the Nats to pull off the greatest comeback in franchise history the next day, coming from nine runs back to beat the Marlins, 14-12. That meeting was led by Max Scherzer.
Now losers of nine of their last 12 games, the Nationals could badly use a spark. Although, that has to come organically, Scherzer told 106.7 The Fan's Grant & Danny during his bi-weekly appearance, presented by F.H. Furr. You can't force it.
"Honestly, you just gotta let everything just happen organically," Scherzer said. "You can never force anything on a baseball team."
"The play will kind of dictate how everybody is feeling, how everybody is approaching things," he said, "and you just have a general sense within the clubhouse, and the veterans usually – not just myself, but the other guys in the clubhouse – have a general feel for that as well. That's honestly just a clubhouse/team thing."
The Nationals (12-17) are 4.5 games off the pace in a reinvigorated NL East that's led by the Phillies (17-13), followed by the Mets (16-15) and Braves (15-15). A similar lack of separation in the division was "a trap we fell into last year," closer Sean Doolittle said this week, still noting injuries have really hampered Washington's success in 2019.
Scherzer doesn't care to focus on what's happening within the division.
"Well, I think it's like you said, it's May 2. I'm more concerned about how we're playing," he said. "I know if we can play good baseball, we can play with anyone in the league."
"For us, we've just got to get back to playing the fundamentals, doing everything right," he added. "And when we play good baseball, I absolutely believe everybody in this clubhouse can have a piece of the reason why we can win this NL East. For me, I'm more focused on how we play versus how the division's playing."
Nor does Scherzer care to focus on last season. It's ever-forward for the three-time Cy Young winner.
"Honestly, we can think about all the different ways that we can win and lose, and you can think about baseball, and baseball can be such a funny game at times," he said. "But honestly, if you just put the blinders on and worry about what you can control, that's usually what takes care of everything.
"And when you focus on all the little things in baseball you can control, there's just a litany of things that you can think about. And really just focus on your individual performance and what your responsibilities are to the team, that's really all you can do for yourself. And just be a leader, and just have that be contagious and just rub off on everybody else."
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