{"id":219965,"date":"2025-10-17T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219965\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:31:08","slug":"max-scherzers-fierce-stand-sparks-blue-jays-in-alcs-game-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219965\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Scherzer&#8217;s fierce stand sparks Blue Jays in ALCS Game 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Scherzer\u2019s fiery insistence on staying in <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2025\/10\/16\/fearless-in-seattle-jays-beat-mariners-in-game-4-to-tie-series-at-2-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Game 4 of the ALCS against the Seattle Mariners<\/a> became one of the defining moments of Thursday night\u2019s matchup, as the veteran right-hander demanded the ball and delivered in vintage fashion.<\/p>\n<p>In the fifth inning, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider made his way to the mound with Scherzer labouring through a tense at-bat. What followed was a scene that underscored the pitcher\u2019s reputation as one of baseball\u2019s fiercest competitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeen waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Sportsnet\/status\/1979042674800804281\" rel=\"nofollow\">Schneider quipped post-game<\/a>. \u201cI thought he was going to kill me. It was great. He locked eyes with me, both colours, as I walked out. It\u2019s not fake. He has this Mad Max persona, but he backed it up tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scherzer\u2019s determination paid off. Facing outfielder Randy Arozarena, Scherzer bore down and struck him out with an off-speed pitch in the dirt. The sequence quickly went viral, with clips circulating across social media and broadcasters replaying the fiery mound visit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe infielders had a good laugh out there, and he got the job done,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I knew I wanted the ball\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The 41-year-old future Hall of Famer came out for the bottom half of the sixth inning to face the heart of the Mariners\u2019 batting order. He would get AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh to fly out and strike out Julio Rodriguez before issuing a walk to Jorge Polanco.<\/p>\n<p>Scherzer was replaced by lefty reliever Mason Fluharty, who would walk Josh Naylor and give up an RBI single to Eugenio Suarez, with Toronto escaping the jam thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/mlb\/video\/barger-guns-down-naylor-at-third-to-get-blue-jays-out-of-sixth-inning-jam\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Addison Barger\u2019s terrific throw to gun down Naylor at third base<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt caught me off guard\u2026 It\u2019s just one of those moments where I know I wanted the ball,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLBONFOX\/status\/1979036705488351386\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scherzer said following Toronto\u2019s 8-2 win<\/a>. \u201cI knew the situation of the game, I wanted the ball, and I basically told him that in a little bit different language.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scherzer scattered three hits and surrendered two earned runs with five strikeouts through 5 2\/3 innings en route to earning the win. He surpassed Roger Clemens for fifth all-time in postseason strikeouts. It\u2019s Scherzer\u2019s first playoff victory since 2019, when he won the World Series with the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s easy to say before the game, [but] he lives for this. You have to respect that and appreciate that,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s going to the Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Toronto\u2019s second-straight victory in Game 4 evened the ALCS, setting up a pivotal Game 5 in Seattle on Friday. The Blue Jays are turning to Kevin Gausman, who <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2025\/10\/12\/seattle-mariners-beat-blue-jays-3-1-in-game-1-of-alcs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">took the Game 1 loss despite an effective start in Toronto<\/a>. Bryce Miller, who stymied Toronto with six strong innings in Game 1, starts for Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Scherzer\u2019s fiery insistence on staying in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Seattle Mariners became one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-219965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}