The Toronto Blue Jays suffered a lopsided 7-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday.
Toronto was looking for a four-game sweep and sent future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer to the mound. Scherzer was stellar as he went 5 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 4. It was a solid performance from Scherzer, who showed he still can pitch at a high-level despite being 42-years-old and dealing with injuries this season.
So, after his outing against the Red Sox, Blue Jays manager John Schneider admitted he worries about Scherzer once he retires from baseball.
“When he’s pitching and he’s contributing, there’s a different feel to him and the team. He has a little bit of ground to stand on. He lives for this [stuff],” Schneider said postgame. “He’s an adrenaline junkie. He lives for this. There’s always a bit of a different emotion with him. I worry about him when he’s done, when he doesn’t have all of this.”
With the Blue Jays competing for a playoff spot, Scherzer will be an important part of Toronto’s rotation. And, Schneider isn’t putting it past the veteran to be even better in his next starts.
“I’ll never put anything past Max,” Schneider said. “I’ve kind of just learned to live with that. You never know.”
Scherzer is now 1-5 with a 6.59 ERA in 10 starts this season with the Blue Jays.
Blue Jays in Playoff Push
Toronto has started to play better baseball, and the Blue Jays are now in playoff contention again.
The Blue Jays have won three of four against the Red Sox, and after Wednesday’s win, Schneider felt confident in the group.
“We know who we’re playing, we know how we have to play and I like the way we’re playing right now,” Schneider said. “I wish we were scoring a bit more to give the bullpen a break, but these guys are playing their [butts] off right now. It’s still realistic. I still think we’re a good team. We haven’t done as well as we would have hoped, but we’ve got time to do that.”
Dylan Cease, meanwhile, believes the team is starting to gel and starting to click.
“We’ve been playing really well, even in Philly, just fighting hard and doing the extra things in games,” said Dylan Cease. “I think we’ve been playing very clean baseball.”
The Blue Jays are 59-64 and are 2 games back of the Wild Card spot.
Toronto’s Rotation Set for Yankees Series
The Blue Jays will host the New York Yankees for a three-game series and have set their rotation.
Toronto will send right-hander Shane Bieber to the mound on Friday opposite Gerrit Cole. On Saturday, the Blue Jays have a TBD, and it could be an internal option like Simeon Woods-Richardson, Lazaro Estrada, CJ Van Eyk, or Chad Dallas as they go up against Cam Schlittler.
In the series finale, the Blue Jays will turn to Cy Young contender Dylan Cease while the Yankees will counter with Ryan Weathers.
Blue Jays Manager Drops Honest Comment on Worrying About Max Scherzer