Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I guess the quarterback situation in Indianapolis is pretty dire if Daniel Jones won the job so soon after being dropped by the Giants.
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What a turnaround
Max Scherzer is turning back the clock as the Blue Jays continue to roll toward their first AL East title in a decade.
Scherzer’s season got off to an inauspicious start. He made just one appearance before landing on the injured list with a thumb issue and missed three months of action. When he returned, he looked every bit like a guy quickly approaching his 41st birthday, posting a 5.04 ERA and 4.64 FIP in his first five starts after coming off the IL.
But things have turned around over the past four weeks. On July 27, the day Scherzer turned 41, he struck out 11 and didn’t walk anyone in a loss to the Tigers—his first 11-K, zero-walk game since Aug. 6, 2022. He did give up three runs, all on a three-run homer by Gleyber Torres in the third inning.
Since then, though, Scherzer has allowed just five combined runs in four starts. His latest strong showing was on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, when he went six innings, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts and three walks. (Toronto won 7–3 and maintained its five-game lead in the division over the Yankees.) Scherzer has now gone four straight starts in which he’s pitched at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs, his longest such streak since 2022.
“I don't think I was quite as sharp as I've been,” Scherzer said. “But I also made pitches when I needed to. I didn't allow a big inning to happen. When things did get sideways, I kept it to one. And got out of other innings as well and kept the rhythm of the game and the offense in the game.”
It’s been a nice bounce back for Scherzer after a series of injuries began zapping his performance in 2023. He had surgery to fix a herniated disk in his back, dealt with a nerve issue in his triceps and had recurring problems with his thumb on his pitching hand. Injuries limited him to nine mostly mediocre starts with the Rangers last season and saw his fastball dip to a career-low average of 92.5 mph.
Scherzer is certainly not the same pitcher he was when he won three Cy Young Awards in a span of five years, or even the same as when he posted a 2.29 ERA in his first season with the Mets in 2022 as a 37-year-old. But he’s found ways to be effective even with diminished stuff. Scherzer has never been a fireballer, but he’s historically had one of the most effective fastballs in the majors, thanks to the pitch’s above-average movement. The fastball isn’t moving like it once did (likely because of its reduced spin rate), but Scherzer is still finding ways to get outs. He’s done so mostly by limiting hard contact, ranking in the 84th percentile in average exit velocity allowed and the 90th percentile in hard hit rate. Scherzer was once elite at getting hitters to chase outside the zone and getting them to whiff, but he now ranks in the bottom half of the league in both metrics. Instead, he’s been limiting his mistakes and inducing soft contact. It isn’t flashy, but it’s just what the Blue Jays need as they attempt to hold onto their division lead.
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The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. A 115.9 mph laser beam for Shohei Ohtani’s 44th homer of the season. That’s his third-fastest homer of the season.
4. An acrobatic play by Yankees prospect Core Jackson on a ball that deflected off the pitcher.
3. Tarik Skubal’s 10 strikeouts for the Tigers to reach 200 on the season. He’s well on his way to a second straight Cy Young.
2. A nifty reverse layup by the Valkyries' Veronica Burton in a wild back-and-forth game with the Mercury. Phoenix went on to win, 98–91.
1. All nine home runs the Yankees hit in their win over the Rays, tying a franchise record. Their only other nine-homer game? Earlier this season on March 29 against the Brewers. They’re now the only franchise in MLB with multiple nine-homer games.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Max Scherzer Shines Again as Blue Jays Maintain AL East Lead.
