Max Scherzer is about to become the only living pitcher to start two winner-take-all Game 7s in the World Series.
Baseball will have its ultimate finale on Saturday night when Scherzer and the Toronto Blue Jays play the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are trying to become the first team to win consecutive titles since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees won three in row.
Los Angeles had been expected to start Tyler Glasnow 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 for two-to-four innings on three days’ rest — which the two-way star has not done since coming to Major League Baseball in 2018.
“They are all possibilities,” Roberts said. “This is Game 7, so there’s a lot of things that people haven’t done.
Scherzer also started Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, boosted by a cortisone injection for an irritated nerve near his neck. He didn’t have a clean inning and left after five, trailing by two runs before his Washington Nationals rallied to win 6-2 in Houston.
Only Bob Gibson (1964, ‘67, ’68) and Lew Burdette and Don Larsen (both 1957 and ‘58) have started multiple winner-take-all Game 7s in the World Series. Burleigh Grimes started Game 7 in 1920 and ’31, but his first was in a year the Series was best-of-nine.
Toronto gave Scherzer, 41, a $15.5-million, one-year contract. The three-time Cy Young Award winner 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.
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“He’s not afraid to question baserunning, question defence, question offence. He still thinks he’s our best baserunner on the team from his days with the Nationals,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Friday. “He’s not afraid to push the envelope. He’s not afraid to be curious. He’s not afraid to share things that he’s been through that maybe I haven’t been through.”
Scherzer went 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts this season. The eight-time All-Star didn’t pitch between March 29 and June 25 because of right thumb inflammation, then was left off Toronto’s roster for the first round of the playoffs after he went 0-3 in his last five starts, bothered by neck pain.
He turned back the clock during the American League Championship Series, winning Game 4 against Seattle after shouting down Schneider during a mound visit.
“No better guy to have on the mound to kind of navigate the emotions, the stuff,” Schneider said. “Max has been getting ready for Game 7 when he knew he was pitching Game 3.”
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Toronto will be playing a World Series Game 7 for the first time — the Blue Jays won their only championships in six games in both 1992 and ’93.
The L.A. Dodgers won their only World 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, ‘52 and ’56, and beat the Yankees in Game 7 in 1955.
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