SEATTLE — Max Scherzer refused to let the sun go down. Not now, not yet.
Scherzer was vibrating on the mound, raging against everything the night threatened to be. If Scherzer were a banker or a taxi driver, 41 would be a fine age, but he is neither of those things. He is a pitcher. He’ll always be a pitcher, and in Toronto’s 8-2 win in Game 4 of the ALCS, he raged against any idea that it could ever be taken away from him.
Mad Max did not earn his name by accident, nor has he grown any less mad. In the hour leading up to first pitch, he paced the outfield frantically and without pattern. He’d jog in a loop, then stretch his neck. He’d sprint 100 feet, then throw a few invisible pitches.
By the time Scherzer made it to the bullpen, he was arguing with ghosts. One pitch, he’d be flailing his arms out to the side, upset with a ball the make-believe batter watched sail by. The next pitch, he’d be pleased, then fire a pistol with the tip of his finger towards the catcher and blow the smoke. Third-base coach Carlos Febles and pitching coach Pete Walker were both nearly mowed down by Scherzer in the dugout at different points as he stormed back and forth. For all they know, they may have just been baby-blue blurs in Scherzer’s vision.
Manager John Schneider even had the audacity to approach Scherzer on the mound with two outs in the fifth inning and Randy Arozarena strolling to the dish behind him. Schneider looked like he was approaching a lion. By the time his left cleat stepped on the mound’s dirt, Scherzer was shouting at him, raging against the idea that anyone else would decide when this was over.
“I thought he was going to kill me. It was great,” Schneider said. “He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out. It’s not fake. That’s the thing, this isn’t fake. He has that Mad Max persona, and he backed it up tonight.”
Schneider said he’d been waiting for that moment since he and Scherzer had their first Zoom call in the offseason, back when the Blue Jays were still trying to convince the expected future Hall of Famer that any of this was possible.
“All of the sudden I saw Schneids coming out and I kind of went, ‘Whoaaa, whoa whoa. I’m not coming out of this ballgame.’ I felt too good,” Scherzer said. “We had a little conversation where I basically said that I was willing to stay in the ballgame, just with some other words involved. I knew I was strong. I knew I wanted the ball.”
One minute later, Scherzer struck out Arozarena with a slider. He slammed his fist into his glove and roared as he stomped off the mound, walking the same path he’d just sent his manager back down.
One moment captured two men at their best. Scherzer, at 41, is old for a pitcher, and the stubborn star wanted to go out on his terms. Schneider, at 45, is still young for a manager, but he has learned how to shape himself to the moment and stare down the lion.
“There’s numbers, there’s projections, there’s strategy, and then there’s people … I was trusting people,” Schneider said, one of his finest moments as a manager.
This was not Scherzer at his best, but it was Scherzer at his most necessary. For those 5 2/3 innings, even as he battled control and his own delivery, only Josh Naylor’s solo shot hurt him. In the 500th start of his MLB career, regular and postseason combined, Scherzer proved that all of his years have mattered. Sure, he was dreadful down the stretch for the Blue Jays and fighting his body, like any 41-year-old starter should be, but his stubbornness was not without reason. Scherzer knew — and convinced everyone around him, too — that he had something left to give to the Blue Jays.
“This is what you play for,” Scherzer said. “You’re in the biggest moment of the season right now. These games are must-win, every single one of them. This is what you play for. You work so hard the whole year. You make all of the sacrifices and put all of the work in to get to this moment, to have these types of moments.”
For two hours, Scherzer squeezed every last drop out of himself. The 96.5 mph fastball he threw to Cal Raleigh in the first inning was the hardest pitch he’s thrown since June 24, 2023. His pickoff of Leo Rivas in the third, which muzzled the Mariners, was his first in any game since 2016 and the first of his postseason career. He’s now just the fourth pitcher in MLB history to win a postseason game at 41 or older, joining Roger Clemens (5 wins), Kenny Rogers (3) and Dennis Martinez (1).
Nothing that happened Thursday night in Seattle was normal. This isn’t how baseball is supposed to work, but Max Scherzer doesn’t give a damn.
