CLEVELAND -- Prior to Tuesday’s series opener between the Blue Jays and Guardians, Toronto manager John Schneider spoke about how happy he was to finally have a full five-man rotation for the first time since Max Scherzer left his inaugural Blue Jays start on March 29 after just three innings.
On Wednesday night, Schneider got to bask in the full extent of Scherzer's glory when the likely Hall of Famer tossed five innings in Toronto's eventual 5-4 loss in 10 innings at Progressive Field.
“There were so many positives to take out of that,” Schneider said. “I think going forward for us, that’s a really, really good sign.”
Scherzer opened the game with a 25-pitch first inning where he struck out the side, but he allowed one run on a one-out RBI single from José Ramírez on a fastball on the outer edge of the strike zone.
Scherzer began his outing with a nine-pitch walk to Steven Kwan before giving up the single to Ramírez after striking out Kyle Manzardo. The right-hander ended the inning with back-to-back strikeouts of Carlos Santana and Lane Thomas.
“I was a little rusty,” Scherzer said. “I pitched good; I didn’t pitch great.”
Scherzer’s outing unraveled in the fourth inning thanks to some bad luck and good two-out hitting. After Daniel Schneemann tagged him for a two-out double, Scherzer issued a walk to Nolan Jones on a pitch clock violation. After the game, Scherzer said that the rhythm of the at-bat was thrown off by Jones tapping the plate without looking up.
“[Home-plate umpire] Bill [Miller] made the right call,” Scherzer said.
Three pitches later, Gabriel Arias shot a ball into the right-center-field gap to give the Guardians a 3-1 lead.
“I made a bad pitch,” Scherzer said.
Scherzer ended his day with a scoreless fifth inning, capped by a strikeout of Santana. Scherzer threw 83 pitches (55 strikes) and was able to generate three whiffs with his fastball and three with his curveball. Scherzer and the Blue Jays were targeting 75 pitches, but Schneider let him face Santana, who got the better of Scherzer on a snappy curveball.
In February, the Blue Jays announced their plans to contend this year by signing Scherzer to a one-year contract, though they only got three innings from him before he went on the shelf thanks to a right thumb injury that he’s been dealing with for most of the latter half of his career.
And while that loss stung (and hurt Toronto’s rotation), it didn’t stop the Blue Jays, who entered play on Wednesday in the thick of the American League postseason race despite never really filling Scherzer’s spot in the rotation. Toronto tried out guys like Easton Lucas, José Ureña and Spencer Turnbull (who was designated for assignment when the Blue Jays activated Scherzer), but nothing seemed to stick. Now that Scherzer’s back, it may not matter.
A lot happened in the 87 days between Scherzer’s starts, as he received two cortisone shots on his ailing right thumb and underwent a long and arduous rehab process that was determined by that injury.
“He crossed a lot of different bridges to get to this point,” Schneider said.
Scherzer’s five-inning start marked his longest outing since he went six innings on July 25, 2024, while with the Rangers.
“From the physical side, today felt great,” Scherzer said. “It felt good to be out there and compete, and hold my velo throughout the game.”
Scherzer said that his next steps will be determined based on how his thumb responds on Thursday during his recovery.
One benefit of getting Scherzer back is that it could result in less work for Toronto’s taxed bullpen -- a theme that played out again in Wednesday’s extra-innings loss.
While Brendon Little and Jeff Hoffman threw three scoreless innings after Nick Sandlin gave up a game-tying home run in the sixth inning in his return to Progressive Field, Mason Fluharty yielded the winning run on a walk-off single from José Ramírez.
Fluharty, who gave up two runs in one-third of an inning on Tuesday, had nowhere to put Ramírez after intentionally walking Kwan and giving up a bunt base hit to David Fry. The latter was generated by a double-pump from catcher Tyler Heineman that allowed Fry to reach and load the bases.
“I’ve seen Steven Kwan get plenty of hits, so I just wanted to get an out there,” Schneider said.