{"id":253776,"date":"2025-11-01T04:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253776\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T04:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:17:06","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-max-scherzer-gets-second-world-series-game-7-start-after-dodgers-force-winner-take-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253776\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays’ Max Scherzer gets second World Series Game 7 start after Dodgers force winner-take-all"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Max Scherzer<\/a> is about to become the only living pitcher to start a winner-take-all World Series Game 7 for a second time.<\/p>\n

Baseball will have its ultimate game Saturday night when Scherzer and the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> play the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>, who are trying to become the first team to win consecutive titles since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees<\/a> won three in row.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles had been expected to start Tyler Glasnow<\/a> before he closed out a 3-1 victory in Game 6. The 6-foot-8 right-hander is likely still available, but manager Dave Roberts could also start Shohei Ohtani<\/a> for 2-4 innings on short rest.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re not certain, but it\u2019s a possibility,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThey\u2019re all possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scherzer also started the last Game 7 in 2019, boosted by a cortisone injection for an irritated nerve near his neck. Mad Max didn’t have a clean inning and left after five trailing by two runs before his Washington Nationals<\/a> rallied to win 6-2 in Houston.<\/p>\n

Only Bob Gibson (1964, \u201867, \u201968) and Lew Burdette and Don Larsen (both 1957 and \u201858) have started multiple winner-take-all Game 7s in the World Series. While Burleigh Grimes started Game 7 in 1920 and \u201931, his first was in a year the Series was best-of-nine.<\/p>\n

Toronto gave the three-time Cy Young Award winner a $15.5 million, one-year contract. Scherzer picked his destination hoping to win a third World Series ring, after titles with Washington in 2019 and Texas in 2023. The 18-year big league veteran has eagerly shared his experience with the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not afraid to question baserunning, question defense, question offense. He still thinks he\u2019s our best baserunner on the team from his days with the Nationals,\u201d Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Friday. \u201cHe\u2019s not afraid to push the envelope. He\u2019s not afraid to be curious. He\u2019s not afraid to share things that he\u2019s been through that maybe I haven\u2019t been through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of teams that don\u2019t like Max Scherzer<\/a>s just because he questions everything,” teammate Chris Bassitt<\/a> added. “He wants to know every little detail from outfield positioning to why you\u2019re throwing this pitch to who is playing here to how we control off days.<\/p>\n

“So many organizations, I feel like, don\u2019t like to answer questions. They like you to be a robot and say, yes sir, and go about your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scherzer went 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts this season. The eight-time All-Star didn\u2019t pitch between March 29 and June 25 because of right thumb inflammation, then was left off Toronto\u2019s roster for the first round of the playoffs after he went 0-3 in his last five starts, bothered by neck pain.<\/p>\n

He turned back the clock during the American League Championship Series, winning Game 4 against Seattle after shouting down Schneider during a mound visit.<\/p>\n

Bassitt was asked by Toronto to assist in recruiting Scherzer, a teammate on the 2022 New York Mets<\/a>, and praised general manager Ross Atkins for making the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Ross: This was going to be a headache for you, having Max Scherzer<\/a>. And then I told the pitching staff about him, and I told the coaching staff, like: This is a guy that\u2019s going to stir a lot of pots,” Bassitt said. \u201cSo everyone looked at Max, the 41-year-old that might end up on the IL a couple times, and they don\u2019t understand the true value of having that veteran guy that knows what it takes to win, and then he might teach you a thing or two along the way, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glasnow got three outs on three pitches to end Game 6. After Roki Sasaki<\/a> left runs at second and third with no outs in the ninth, Glasnow popped up Ernie Clement<\/a> on the first pitch, then Andres Gimenez<\/a> hit a liner to left fielder Kik\u00e9 Hernandez, who caught it and doubled off Addison Barger<\/a> at second base.<\/p>\n

Glasnow, acquired from Tampa Bay in December 2023, was sidelined between April 27 and July 9 by right shoulder inflammation. The 32-year-old right-hander has a 1.42 ERA in three starts and two relief outings this postseason.<\/p>\n

Toronto will be playing a World Series Game 7 for the first time \u2014 the Blue Jays won their only championships in six games in both 1992 and \u201993.<\/p>\n

The LA Dodgers won their only Series Game 7 at Minnesota in 1965 when Sandy Koufax pitched a three-hit shutout on two days’ rest after his four-hit shutout won Game 5. They lost Game 7 at home to Houston in 2017. Going back, the Brooklyn Dodgers lost Game 7 to the Yankees in 1947, \u201852 and \u201956, and beat the Yankees in Game 7 in 1955.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Max Scherzer is about to become the only living pitcher to start a winner-take-all World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,77,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-253776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-international","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253776","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=253776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}