WASHINGTON _ There was a game this season in which Max Scherzer did some enthusiastically dominant Max Scherzer thing, probably against Atlanta. Washington Nationals reliever Ryan Madson leaned over to Sean Doolittle and asked if he recognized the game their teammate was playing.
It wasn't a level of baseball they knew.
"It's like he's out there playing American Legion ball with his buddies on the back field," Doolittle said. "There are other guys in this league with electric stuff, but they're not doing what he's doing. They're not putting together the body of work that he's putting together. He's playing a different game than the rest of us. And, he's having too much fun."
As Scherzer, eyes twinkling, led the National League into the All-Star Game at his home ballpark Tuesday night, Major League Baseball has invited its own midsummer crisis.
Batting averages are sinking, strikeouts rising, action fleeting, and Three True Outcomes have become the game's One Single Certainty.
Commissioner Rob Manfred conceded Tuesday that his office is "prepared to have a broader conversation about how the game is being played on the field."
The All-Star Game wasn't immune to these concerns. There were more strikeouts (25) than hits (20) in the American League's 8-6 victory, and all but one of the 14 runs were generated by home runs. There were 10 homers in the game, eight of them solo shots.
Celebration of the game, indeed.
St. Louis-area native and Nationals ace Scherzer started the All-Star Game for the third time in his career, and took the mound as the master of modern baseball. From the data he digests before a start, the video he uses to tune his mechanics, to the area of the strike zone he exploits, Scherzer is not just the best pitcher in the league, he's a product of his time.
He has taken the trends and turned them against themselves.
"He's one of my favorite guys to watch because of the repertoire of pitches that he has and how he uses them," said Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer, another All-Star. "Highly optimized for the current state of today's game."
What has caused all the hand-wringing around baseball this season is the accelerating absence of balls put in play and the increasing prominence of strikeouts, home runs, and, the lesser of the Three True Outcomes, walks.
The overall batting average of .247 would be the lowest in the game since 1972, and is edging ever closer to the average in 1968 that, along with Bob Gibson's 1.12 earned-run averaged, forced a change to the mound's height.
ESPN noted that baseball is on pace to set a strikeout record for the 11th consecutive season. Scherzer has stayed ahead of this trend with his strikeout rate rising each of the past five seasons. His 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings leads the league _ and would be one of the highest ever for a full season.
In baseball history there have been only two months in which hitters have had more strikeouts than hits: April and June of this season. That's it.
During an hourlong conversation with members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday, union chief Tony Clark repeatedly referred to the players as the "stewards of the game," and often talked about how there were elements of the game that concerned those stewards. He specifically talked about the omnipresence of analytics and how the game increasingly is dictated by data.
He wondered whether "the type of game it appears to be dictating, is that in the best interest of the game?"
"Players are very protective about the game. The game is very personal to them," Clark said. "Do they have concerns? Yes. Do they want to have a conversation about those concerns? Yes. ... Over the last five years or so, they've seen more changes to the game than we had in the number of years prior. Even that is concerning to the guys because they don't want to get to a place to where the fans have always loved the game and been passionate about it are no longer enjoying it. We're also not engaging the next generation of fans along the way.
"That combination platter is very concerning to the players."
Players widely believe that pitching never has been better. Velocity is up. Movement is up.
Cardinals rookie Jordan Hicks' record-setting 105-mph sinker is proof that for some, velocity and movement both are up. Meanwhile, hitters are swinging up. Defensive shifts _ dictated by data _ have vaporized the hard groundball game, leaving some left-handed batters such as the Nationals' Bryce Harper with a bipolar slash line: .214 batting average but a .833 OPS.
There are fewer balls in play to create action on the field at the same time the commissioner's office is pushing, prodding, pulling the leagues to have a swifter pace of play and shorter time of games.
Teams have received admonishments for prolonging down time in games.
"This organic change may be driven by competition but there are a lot of places in life where competition has to be bridled a little bit," Manfred said. "You can't change the way the competitive people who run clubs are thinking about the game because they think they've figured out a way to win a few more games. The only option available to us is to have dialogue with the people who play the game every day and figure out what rules, if any, ought to be put in place to kind of check or manage these organic developments.
"We need to have a really serious conversation about making some changes to the way the game is being played."
In the meantime, Scherzer stays a step ahead.
At 33, Scherzer has gotten better at an age when power right-handers can start to deteriorate. He is fanatical when it comes to preparation, both for his body and his game. Scherzer will arrive for pregame meetings with his own notes on the opposing batters.
He has suggestions for the shifts the fielders should use behind him. Scherzer once described how he scours video, frame by frame, to check on his mechanics because the technology allows him to know his delivery with that kind of intimacy.
Houston Astros pitching coach Brent Strom, who used to serve as pitching coordinator in the Cardinals' organization, said he uses Scherzer's mechanics as a model for pitching mechanics, along with Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux and Cliff Lee.
Strom said it's as if Scherzer is able to "pitch uphill."
"He even throws cutters up in the zone," Atlanta first baseman Freddie Freeman said. "Everything seems to be up except for that changeup that is devastating and goes away from me. A lot of (scouting reports) this season are how pitchers are pitching up. People are trying to swing up and hit homers because of all the shifts now. Max, obviously, is one of the best in the game and has made that adjustment."
The American League's lineup Tuesday looked like an MVP ballot, and Scherzer struck out the first two he faced. He got Mookie Betts looking at one of those cutters, and on three pitches he struck out Jose Altuve. He elevated a 98-mph fastball for strike two, and then went higher with a 98-mph fastball for strike three.
Before the game, Cubs lefty Jon Lester described how he was schooled in a grounded game: "Down in the zone. Down in the zone. You can't get hurt down in the zone." Now, even he is trying to elevate to take advantage of the en vogue, launch-angle swing path. Scherzer already has beaten hitters there.
Scherzer had the contemporary inning to star the All-Star Game. He struck out two, walked one, and got a popup on an elevated fastball to end the inning. In his second inning, he didn't get a fastball up in the zone enough and Aaron Judge put it over the wall for a homer.
Scherzer finished with four strikeouts. A total of three balls were put in play against him.
The biggest were cheers, however _ for strikeouts.
A favorite pastime for America's favorite pastime is agonizing over its flaws, and even on a day set aside for the game's best there was a lot of talk about the game's worst. Questions abound about tanking teams, tepid attendance, and of course the standards, pace of play and promoting personalities. None of it has seemed to hurt Scherzer. He's on his way toward a fourth Cy Young Award and burnishing a Hall of Fame candidacy.
And he's a star in D.C. Take note, baseball. He's thrived because of the modern game, not in spite of it.
There is a billboard above right field that is a closeup of Scherzer's heterochromia eyes. The only color on the billboard is his blue right eye and brown left.
It's as if he's looking down, reading the game.
Fitting.
"It's playing right into his hands," Doolittle said.
