WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer’s second return from an IL stint this season went better than his first, enough so that he’s hopeful for what could still be ahead.
Scherzer labored through 2 2/3 innings on 75 pitches on his 42nd birthday, but he escaped by allowing only one run in his former home park in the Blue Jays’ 3-2 win over the Nationals in Monday night’s series opener.
“I knew it was going to be a little rusty,” Scherzer said after his 100th career start at Nationals Park. “I knew this happens when you come off the IL, and you haven’t pitched as much. Every time out, it should be a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better execution.
“If I can get that going, I know I can still compete at this level at the highest level and compete against anybody. So it should be fun for me in the second half here.”
In the three-time Cy Young Award winner’s first outing since June 10, he struck out four to move within eight of Walter Johnson (3,515) for 10th all-time on MLB’s all-time strikeout list (according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the official statistician of Major League Baseball). Scherzer also walked three and allowed four hits.
In the process, he lowered his ERA by about three-quarters of a run, to 9.49, in his seventh start this season and first since he landed back on the IL with a combination of back spasms and right thumb inflammation. He has retired more than 10 batters in only two of those outings, both of those coming before his first injury setback due to right forearm tightness and left ankle inflammation.
Most encouraging for Blue Jays manager John Schneider was an absence of strong contact, aside from Luis García Jr.’s second-inning RBI double.
“I thought he battled really well, you know what I mean?” Schneider said. “They were fouling off some stuff, and the walks were kind of uncharacteristic of him. But really only one hard-hit ball from García, and he gave us everything he had.”
Barring any other setbacks, Scherzer might have one more outing before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline to convince possible trade suitors he’s worth a low-risk flyer (should he waive the no-trade clause in his one-year, $3 million deal).
“I can’t 100% say, the way this has gone for me, but I am in a good spot,” he said of another potential start on Sunday. “I do think I’ll recover out well from this one and hopefully continue to march back up and get built back up as a starter here.”
Asked what could still be accomplished this season for the last-place Blue Jays (49-58), Scherzer alluded to ignoring the chatter that Toronto could be Deadline sellers.
“Look, our record is our record,” he said. “It’s frustrating as heck that we’re in this position, but we’re professionals. We have a job to do. … You’ve got to go out there and do everything you can to win, every single day. That’s the mentality we have in the clubhouse, and we kind of let the other stuff just be noise.”
Luis Urías homered, Ernie Clement hit an RBI double and Myles Straw singled in a run for Toronto. Mason Fluharty and Spencer Miles each worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, Tyler Rogers and Jeff Hoffman pitched one scoreless frame each and Louis Varland stranded a pair of runners in the ninth for his 22nd save.
Scherzer received a standing ovation of roughly 30 seconds when he first took the mound at Nationals Park, the venue he called home from 2015-21.
He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, striking out Dylan Crews before inducing Daylen Lile into a groundout. After Scherzer allowed García’s RBI double, he stranded two more Nationals by fielding José Tena’s chopper himself.
He departed with one aboard in the third to another appreciative applause from the crowd as he walked off after a 12-pitch strikeout of Lile and a brief mound visit with Schneider.
“I got out there, and I just wanted to check on him, and he said, ‘Your call,’” Schneider said. “And I said, ‘That was a lot. That was a lot right there.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘Your call.’ And I said, ‘OK, nice job.’”
