TORONTO – A year after starting Game 7 of the World Series, Max Scherzer’s competitiveness remains as high as ever, but six starts into his second season with the Toronto Blue Jays, the results just haven’t been there.
Pitching at the MLB level for the first time since April, Scherzer reached a historic milestone Wednesday while also allowing five runs in a game the Blue Jays lost 7-4. With the loss, they fall to 33-36 on the season with a list of questions that now includes how to get Scherzer right ahead of his next scheduled appearance at Fenway Park.
In the first inning, Scherzer made some history by striking out former teammate Kyle Schwarber for the 3,500th strikeout of his career. It was one of four strikeouts for Scherzer, who allowed five hits, including two home runs, while walking two.
Only 10 pitchers in MLB history have more strikeouts than Scherzer: nine Hall of Famers and Justin Verlander, who will one day be enshrined in Cooperstown alongside Scherzer and the others. Anyone who approaches that plateau must have a combination of brilliance and durability – and Scherzer has offered his share of both over the course of 19 MLB seasons.
The question for the Blue Jays now is: how much does he have left? Because as much as they’ve been longing for times like this with a full rotation full of established starters, that only matters if the likes of Scherzer and Patrick Corbin can keep runs off the board and haul innings.
To be fair, there were some positives Wednesday. The Phillies swung and missed at Scherzer’s pitches 13 times, matching the total of Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo, who struck out eight. And Scherzer’s fastball sat 93.6 m.p.h., topping out at 95.3 – about where he should be.
But ultimately it comes down to results, and the Phillies made lots of hard contact against Scherzer, including home runs by Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm. For the season, the right-hander’s ERA is 10.23.
The early exit for Scherzer led to a busy night for the bullpen with six relievers covering 5.2 innings. Ahead of an off day, that’s not a problem for the Blue Jays. But moving forward, they do need some length from Scherzer.
Also relevant to this conversation is Shane Bieber, who’s scheduled to make a rehab start with triple-A Buffalo Thursday. In a scenario where that start goes very well, Bieber could be a consideration for the big-league rotation as soon as next week.
At this point, it’s simply too soon to say what’s next for Bieber and how that impacts Scherzer and the rest of the MLB rotation.
Facing the talented but unpredictable Luzardo, the Blue Jays pushed without breaking through. They walked four times, taking advantage of the lefty’s volatile command, but the only big hit they came up with was a Brandon Valenzuela RBI single.
Later, the Blue Jays scored three in the seventh thanks to a bases-loaded walk from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and sacrifice flies from Ernie Clement and Kazuma Okamoto.
After a day off Thursday, the Blue Jays welcome the Yankees to Toronto for the first time this year. Ideally, this would be a chance for two of the league’s elite teams to face off for top spot in the AL East. But first things first. Now 9.0 games behind the Yankees and three games below .500, the Blue Jays need to hold on in the wild-card race before they worry about much else.