LOS ANGELES — Max Scherzer has pitched for five teams since 2019, three of which reached the World Series.
The former fellow Mets ace has already earned rings with the Nationals and Rangers during that time. If Scherzer is going to add a piece of Blue Jays hardware to his collection, it would behoove him to contribute Monday night when he is scheduled to play the Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series.
No one appreciates the moment more than 41-year-old Scherzer, even after all his fights in October. Scherzer will start a World Series game for a fourth franchise — he also pitched for the Tigers in their 2012 series loss to the Giants.
It’s a contrast to his Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly, who took until this season — his 36th in a major league uniform — to reach the World Series.
“You just think about everything, throughout your life, all the different things that have unfolded, and you’re so happy to be able to do this one more time,” Scherzer said. “There are so many great players who have never played in a World Series, so many great players where they have only one World Series. With Donnie on our team, he has been away his entire career and now this is his first moment.”
It’s a World Series in which a starting pitcher has already made his mark. In Saturday’s Game 2, Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto fired his second consecutive complete game, retiring the final 20 batters to tie the series at 1-1 for Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers will deploy Tyler Glasnow, part of a four-headed monster in this rotation of aces that includes Blake Snell and Shohei Ohtani in addition to Yamamoto.
Scherzer, who arrived last winter on a one-year contract worth $15.5 million, credited his former Mets teammate Chris Bassitt (also a Blue Jays pitcher) for his decision to move north of the border.
“[Bassitt] “I have a very good idea of what this clubhouse and this team needs,” Scherzer said. “And we were talking all season and when things started moving in my direction, it all seemed to click, that it would be great to get back with him and that this was a team that could really go somewhere.” They just needed to make a few adjustments. But he really was the eyes and ears of what this team could be.
Scherzer started 17 games for the Blue Jays this season and pitched to an ERA of 5.19. He spent nearly three months on the injured list at the start of the season recovering from a right thumb injury.
And after a six-start stretch to close the regular season, during which he pitched to a 9.00 ERA, there were questions about where he would fit in the postseason (he was not used in the ALDS). But Scherzer came up big in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Mariners, allowing two earned runs over 5 ²/₃ innings for the win.
Scherzer credited his three weeks off between starts for breathing new life into him.
“It was really about getting fully healthy, overcoming all the little ailments I had so I could get back through the ball and throw the ball the best I could,” Scherzer said. “So yeah, I used that time in the division series to get fully healthy and I felt like that benefited me. So ready to go out and compete in Game 3.”
Scherzer’s last World Series start was for the Rangers in Game 3 in 2023 against the Diamondbacks. He was removed after three shutout innings due to back tightness.
But Scherzer said the disappointment of that outing won’t affect his mindset heading into Monday.
“I [won’t] I have to look all the way back for any motivation,” he said. “I have enough motivation. I’m here to win and I have a clubhouse full of guys who want to win too. So we’re a great team and that’s all I have to think about.”
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