{"id":216488,"date":"2025-10-16T00:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216488\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T00:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:25:09","slug":"blue-jays-max-scherzer-welcomes-the-pressure-of-a-game-4-alcs-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216488\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays\u2019 Max Scherzer welcomes the pressure of a Game 4 ALCS start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer delivers a pitch against the Boston Red Sox in a September game at Rogers Centre.Dan Hamilton\/Reuters<\/p>\n

When the Toronto Blue Jays signed three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer to a one-year, US$15-million contract in February, Thursday\u2019s upcoming game was the kind of opportunity they envisioned.<\/p>\n

Scherzer will start Game 4 of the American League Championship Series in Seattle against the Mariners, his first postseason appearance in a Jays uniform. <\/p>\n

The Jays left the 41-year-old, two-time World Series champion off the roster for the best-of-five AL Division Series against the Yankees. So he used the time to get healthy and tune up his stuff. Now in a best-of-seven series, they want more starters in the rotation, and they are leaning on Scherzer\u2019s postseason experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it. This is what you play for. You want to have the ball in this situation, you want to be pitching in the postseason,\u201d said Scherzer on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to bring it, you got to have your \u2018A\u2019 game, you got to really be on top of your stuff. So they\u2019re going to be as prepared as heck to go against me and try to beat me, and I got to do the same and find a way to navigate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a big hitter, or a winner?<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Jays\u2019 playoff run boosts sales at local businesses, giving owners even more reason to cheer<\/a><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t finish the regular season strong, but now the Jays are trusting in the decorated pitcher who is likely headed for the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou trust that he\u2019s going to be prepared and go out and give everything he has and hopefully rise to the occasion of a big moment. He\u2019s a Hall of Famer for a reason,\u201d said Toronto manager John Schneider. \u201cSo you feel good about handing him the ball and watching him go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eight-time MLB all-star has made 30 postseason appearances (25 starts) totalling 143 innings. Scherzer earned champion rings with the Washington Nationals in 2019 and the Texas Rangers in 2023.<\/p>\n

Scherzer\u2019s stuff was great earlier this season, but over his final six starts (25 IP), he posted a 9.00 ERA.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Scherzer throws during the first inning of a game against the Kansas City Royals in September, in Kansas City, Mo. The eight-time MLB all-star has made 30 postseason appearances.Charlie Riedel\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to forget his recent start in Kansas City, when he lasted just two thirds of an inning and allowed seven runs in the shortest noninjury start of his career. Or last month in the Bronx, when the Yankees exploited Scherzer tipping his changeup. <\/p>\n

So it was tough to be left off the ALDS roster, but he used the time wisely, getting better physically, staying in the dugout during games and engaged with the team, pitching a simulated game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to point the finger at anything ailment-wise of why I was pitching bad. I was pitching bad,\u201d said Scherzer. \u201cBut I have used this time to try to get fully healthy, get everything right \u2026 to go out there and pitch as well as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and fellow pitcher Chris Bassitt were both off that ALDS roster, but on this one for the ALCS. They got through it together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Max definitely weren\u2019t happy about not playing against New York, but at the end of the day it was looking at this series here, knowing that we needed this,\u201d said Bassitt. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just trusting the guys that we have in the room to get us to this series and then, getting Max healthy, and I think Max is in a really, really good spot for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer delivers a pitch against the Boston Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85,22600],"class_list":["post-216488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-topstory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}