Max Scherzer turns back the clock in ALCS Game 4, just when the Blue Jays needed him the most

As the Toronto Blue Jays evened the series in the best-of-seven ALCS at two games apiece, a trend is starting to emerge. The Seattle Mariners have won both games in Toronto and the Blue Jays have won the first two games in Seattle so far, including Thursday night’s 8-2 victory (box score). Yes, the road team won every game.

We’ve already seen a road team win all seven games twice in a seven-game series. The 2023 ALCS and the 2019 World Series. You know who was on that 2019 national team that won it all? Max Scherzer.

He took the ball for the Blue Jays in Game 4, hoping to help the Jays avoid falling behind 3–1 in the series. And even though vintage Mad Max isn’t really around anymore, the 41-year-old truly turned back the clock on Thursday night, enough to wipe out the win.

The final line was less impressive than he had really imagined in the last few innings, thanks to a blocked runner coming in to score after Scherzer left, although it was still very good: 5 ⅔ IP, 3 H, 2 ER.

But again, it was more than numbers. It was Max Freaking Scherzer. Mad Max.

We’ve all seen his facial expressions and mannerisms on the mound long enough to recognize them. He almost spit fire on the mound with his first pitch. He circled the mound after hitting swings and misses. There was a loud explosion after a Eugenio Suárez strikeout late in the inning.

And, sure enough, manager John Schneider had the audacity to come out and guard Mad Max with two outs in the fifth.

“I’ve been waiting for this all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound,” Schneider said after the game. “I think at that point there are numbers, there are projections, there is a strategy and there are people. So I trusted the people.

“…I thought he was going to kill me. It was awesome.”

Scherzer would retire the next batter. The intensity was on full display.

Scherzer’s numbers, the ones Schneider was talking about, screamed “don’t get me started” in this game. Once he drained the fifth inning, there was no reason to send him back for the sixth. Any number cruncher would have said to take him out of the game. However, just looking at Scherzer, you could sense that maybe, just maybe, they could squeeze a few more outs out of him. Maybe it was emotion. Maybe it was nostalgia for the past with Prime Scherzer. He just gave off that vibe.

The numbers weren’t on Scherzer’s side. But his manager was.

He is 41 years old. He had a 9.00 ERA in his last five regular season starts. He hadn’t pitched in a game since September 24 and wasn’t even on the ALDS roster. He wasn’t supposed to do that against a good Mariners offense.

And yet, the longer he stood on that mound Thursday, the closer he got to Prime Scherzer.

He was in trouble from the first and a double play got him out of there. He allowed a solo homer to start the second. He had no strikeouts until 2 ⅔. He finished with five strikeouts in 5 ⅔ innings. He only threw his curveball 10 times, but he made 10 swings, including six whiffs. Of the 20 swings he took with his four-seam fastball, 12 were foul balls.

Some – including myself, admittedly – ​​thought it was a mistake for the Blue Jays to trust Scherzer with many outs in a game they needed to win. But Schneider saw something.

“I think everyone in the dugout was waiting for this moment,” Schneider said after the game. “When you sign Max Scherzer, you’re kind of waiting for that moment. So it definitely gave us a little bit of a shock when he came in. And all that aside, I’m really – I’m proud of the way Max handled everything, from getting back physically, to being cut from the team in the last series against the Yankees and handling that like a pro and then going out and playing like that. So that was important for everyone going forward. “

After 18 seasons in the majors, Scherzer knew how he felt and trusted, like his manager, what he was capable of.

“It was a moment to throw in the game right there. It was just a situation. I was reliving it in my head. I understood where the state of the game was, I knew how I wanted to attack, and then all of a sudden I saw Schneids come out, and I kind of said ‘woah, woah, woah.’ I’m not out of this ball game. I feel so good,” Scherzer said after the match.

“So we had a little conversation about how basically I wanted to stay in the ball game, but just with other words involved. I just knew I was strong, I knew I wanted the ball, I knew I could get out of this situation. I just wanted to stay. I wanted that.”

It wasn’t Babe Ruth who would have called his shot or anything so dramatic, but Scherzer exposed him. He said he had to find a way to navigate the game. That’s exactly what he did for his 17 timeouts.

Of course, none of this is surprising. Scherzer won three Cy Young Awards and two World Series titles. In the regular season, he won 221 games and struck out nearly 3,500 batters. In 143 playoff innings before Game 4, he had 171 strikeouts and seven wins.

In Game 4, he recorded his first playoff victory since 2019. You know, that same year, Scherzer and his Nationals won four games on the road to win the World Series. The Blue Jays, after starting in a 2-0 hole, are halfway through the 2025 ALCS.