Baker, Scherzer take exception with ump's late timeout calls

Max Scherzer likes to try to disrupt the timing of opposing batters and baserunners. He's perfectly content to hold the ball in the set position for three, four, even five seconds, hoping to catch somebody napping.

Because of that, Scherzer has become quite accustomed to the opposition calling for time, stepping out of the box and hitting the reset button. And he takes no issue with any batter who does that.

He did, however, take exception with plate umpire Alan Porter's decision twice during last night's loss to the Cardinals to grant time out to Greg Garcia as the right-hander was already starting his delivery to the plate.

The end result was a pair of awkward-looking moments, with Scherzer reaching back and striding toward the plate, only to cut off his pitch before letting go of the ball.

"They can call time all they want," Scherzer said. "That doesn't bug me. That's happened my whole career. I just thought Alan behind the plate granted it just a touch late. It just happens. It didn't frustrate me. I just don't want to get hurt. You can get hurt doing that."

Indeed, a pitcher's greatest fear is that by halting his delivery - or even by going ahead and pitching the ball but often with a weird hitch or pause - he could strain something, whether in his arm, his legs or his core.

"Max does take a long time in between pitches sometimes," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. "He holds the ball sometimes. If they're going to call time out, I wish they'd call time out before he went into his windup. Because that's a good way to hurt your arm."

The late timeout calls last night didn't have much, if any, bearing on the outcome of the game. But they did make for some awkward moments, leaving the crowd of 30,781 offering up catcalls at Garcia and Porter and annoying the Nationals in the process.

"Call time all you want," Scherzer said. "I get it: I'm holding the ball. But the umpire's got to make sure that you don't hurt the pitcher. I understand the hitter's going to call time, and I'm not upset one bit about them calling time. I just don't want to get hurt."