TORONTO -- All of the greats have a little stubbornness to their game, that ability to keep hammering forward until it all breaks wide open.
Max Scherzer was brilliant in Thursday’s 2-1 win over the Cubs at Rogers Centre, but as the first six innings whizzed by, it looked like the likely future Hall of Famer would end up stuck as a one-man show with no supporting cast. That’s the beauty of this Blue Jays offense, though. Even if it takes a while to wake up, it's always coming.
This was vintage Scherzer in every way, mowing through the Cubs in Thursday’s 3:07 p.m. ET start like he had a dinner reservation at 5:30.
“Two thumbs up,” said manager John Schneider, holding up both thumbs as a wink to the conversations we’re no longer having about Scherzer’s right thumb. “It’s nice to just talk about game planning, knowing that you have Max Scherzer, who’s confident in his stuff. It’s been a long road to get here. He’s worked really hard to get here. It’s nice to watch him compete. There aren’t many guys like him.”
Over seven-plus innings, Scherzer held the Cubs to just one run on a solo shot from Michael Busch, and while he only struck out three batters, Scherzer stayed away from the danger zones and produced plenty of weak contact from an eager Chicago lineup. We’ve seen over the past few weeks that Scherzer still has dominant, swing-and-miss stuff when the moment calls for it, but he’s proving that he can still shapeshift. It took him just 73 pitches to burn through the first seven innings.
Scherzer knew the Cubs were going to come out swinging. His plan? Let them.
“I was anticipating them to come out aggressive, and man, they came out even more aggressive than I thought,” Scherzer said. “It came down to just, ‘You’ve got to locate these pitches.’ They were going to be aggressive. Strike one, locate it, get the ball where you want it. It’s OK if they swing at it.
“They were making some outs on it and that kept my pitch count in check. It let me be even more fine in those early counts.”
Scherzer’s savior was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who launched a two-run home run in the seventh that shook a sleeping offense to life. Toronto had just three hits Thursday as Matthew Boyd put on a clinic of his own, but all that matters here is another win for the AL-leading Blue Jays.
“I’ll tell you what -- every time I see [Scherzer] go out there and give all he’s got, now I know why he has all of his numbers,” Guerrero said through a club interpreter. “Now I know why he’s going to go directly into the Hall of Fame.”
Every single conversation about Toronto from this point forward needs to be tied to the postseason. The Blue Jays aren’t just trying to sneak into the party as a Wild Card team this year, they have a clear path to winning the AL East and should have every opportunity to skip over the Wild Card round entirely by finishing in one of the top two spots in the American League.
That’s why this recent run from Scherzer is so exciting. He’s not just helping the Blue Jays get to October, he’s proving that he can pitch near the front of this rotation once they get there.
The 71-51 Blue Jays still have 40 games in front of them, each of them an opportunity for something to go terribly wrong or wonderfully right, but the postseason rotation is already taking shape around one major variable. That’s Shane Bieber, the Blue Jays’ big Trade Deadline splash who will make what’s expected to be his final rehab start Friday with Triple-A Buffalo, then make his Blue Jays debut.
A healthy Bieber, even one pitching to 90% of the level we’ve seen from him in the past with the Guardians, likely belongs in Game 1, Game 2 or Game 3 of a postseason series. Kevin Gausman has an inside track on one of those, given his potential to dominate a lineup on any given day. But it’s clearer by the start that Scherzer belongs in one of these big moments. Besides, Scherzer’s 143 career postseason innings rank third among all active pitchers, trailing only Clayton Kershaw (194 1/3) and Justin Verlander (223).
Scherzer has been there. Scherzer has done that.
It looks like the Blue Jays are going to give him a shot to do it again.