Blue jays starter Max Scherzer hopes performance against the A's is just the beginning
Scherzer claimed his first victory since July 25 last year when he pitched for Texas and the Rangers defeated the Chicago White Sox 2-1. Injuries didn't help. The three-time Cy Young Award winner opened last season on the injured list after undergoing back surgery. Then shortly after recording that victory against the White Sox, he spent more than a month on the IL because of shoulder fatigue. Scherzer signed a 15.5 million one-year contract with the Blue Jays in the offseason but again experienced health issues. He went on this 60-day IL because of an injured thumb.
'My body's good,' Scherzer said. 'As long as my thumb is healthy, I can be myself. I can pitch like this. It's all about my thumb.' This was his fourth start since rejoining the rotation and Scherzer made the most of it. He struck out five consecutive batters at one point and shut out the As over five innings, allowing just singles to Nick Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom.
The As began to get to Scherzer in the sixth with Kurtz hitting a two-run home run and Soderstrom getting a solo shot. Those homers cut the Blue Jays lead to 7-3, but Scherzer induced a flyout to Miguel Andujar to end the threat. 'It's my first time at 90 pitches, lengthening my arm out for the first time to the sixth inning this year,' Scherzer said. 'Get acclimated to that pitch count and hopefully get rolling. I'm happy about this, especially when we win. When I get my chance after the (All-Star) break, keep this going.'
Schneider said he thought the break came at a good time for the 40-year-old Scherzer. 'Hopefully he can build off of this and get him out there pretty regularly,' Schneider said. 'I think reshuffling the rotation if we can to give him a little more rest would be great. I'll take him on the mound any day of the week.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Call it a comeback! Hutchinson, McCaffrey, Prescott, McCarthy aiming to bounce back from injuries
ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Aidan Hutchinson put his left hand down in a three-point stance and on the snap made an inside move on an offensive tackle to help collapse a pocket around the passer. Hutchinson looked like he did on most plays in practice and games during his first two-plus seasons with the Detroit Lions. The only obvious difference was a black sleeve that covered and supported much of his surgically repaired left leg. Hutchinson appeared to practice without any limitations on Sunday when Detroit kicked off training camp with its first practice. That was a good sign for him and a franchise that desperately needs him to regain the spectacular form he had before breaking his leg in two places nine months ago against the Dallas Cowboys. Hutchinson, the No. 2 overall pick in 2022, was an early candidate for The Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year last season when he had 7 1/2 sacks in five games for one of the leagues top teams. His third season ended with a gruesome injury that landed him in a Texas hospital for a couple of days, forcing him into his longest hiatus without football. Hutchinson's long wait to play again is expected to end Sept. 7 at Green Bay where the two-time defending NFC North champions will start the season. 'I don't think anybody in the game of football will ever be as grateful when I come back in that first game,' Hutchinson said. San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott and Minnesota quarterback J.J. McCarthy may beg to differ because they too are thankful to be on pace to bounce back from injury-shortened seasons. Christian McCaffrey, the two-time All-Pro running back, has said he has zero restrictions after Achilles tendinitis kept him out of the first eight games last year and a right knee injury relegated him to watching the last five games. San Francisco slipped last season with McCaffrey limited to four games, going 6-11 after reaching the Super Bowl thanks in part to its dynamic running back. He won the AP Offensive Player of the Year that season after leading the league with 2023 yards from scrimmage and tying for the NFL lead with 21 touchdowns. 'Last year didn't go the way I wanted. It didn't go the way anyone wanted,' he said. 'But having this time off has allowed me to start from scratch and have the time where I can build a base again.' Dak Prescott, the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback, is expected to be fully recovered from surgery on his torn hamstring last November. That will give him a chance to live up to the 240 million four-year contract he signed just before the 2024 season. The Cowboys are counting on Prescott to bounce back to help them get back to the playoffs following a three-year postseason run with just seven wins last season. A year after finishing second in AP NFL MVP voting, Prescott had 11 touchdown passes and eight interceptions in eight games last season. 'I'm healthy,' he said. 'I'll be full go for camp.' J.J. McCarthy, The Minnesota Vikings aiming to earn consecutive postseason bids for the first time since 2009 plan to give McCarthy a shot to take the first snaps this season after he missed his rookie year with a knee surgery. The Vikings let Sam Darnold depart in free agency clearing the way for the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft. McCarthy showed no signs of trouble during spring practices and declared himself to be bigger, faster and stronger than he was before he hurt his knee in the teams first exhibition game on last August. 'When you get it taken away from you, you take every chance you get to be back out here and really appreciate it, really take the most out of it,' McCarthy said. 'Nothing better than being out here with the boys playing some ball, so having a great time.'
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Detroit's Skubal making a bid for a Cy Young repeat. He'd be the first in al to do that since 2000
It's been a quarter century since an American League pitcher won back-to-back Cy Young Awards. It takes a pretty special pitcher to pull that off – but Tarik Skubal fits the bill. Skubal showed why he's the favorite to win the Cy Young for a second straight year, striking out 11 with no walks Sunday night in Detroit's 2-1 victory over Texas. If the Cy Young indeed goes to him, he'll be the first AL pitcher to earn it in back-to-back seasons since Pedro Martinez's remarkable stretch with the Red Sox in 1999 and 2000. Roger Clemens won consecutive Cy Youngs on two different occasions (1986-87 and 1997-98) and Jim Palmer did it in 1975 and 76. Those are the only AL pitchers besides Martinez to pull that off. It's been a bit more common in the National League: Greg Maddux (1992-95) and Randy Johnson (1999-2002) both won four straight, and Tim Lincecum (2008-09), Clayton Kershaw (2013-14), Max Scherzer (2016-17), and Jacob deGrom (2018-19) are in the two-in-a-row club. National Leaguer Sandy Koufax won the Cy Young in 1965 and 1966 back when there was only one award for both leagues. The win Sunday snapped a six-game losing streak for the Tigers, who still have baseball's best record and an 11-game lead in the AL Central. Not only has Detroit struggled to win games lately, but the All-Star game didn't go great either, with Skubal giving up two runs in the first inning and Tigers teammate Casey Mize allowing a homer in the sixth. Skubal, however, pitched well enough on Sunday to take over the AL lead in ERA. He's at 2.1854 while Boston's Garrett Crochet is at 2.1946. Trivia time: In 1988, a Minnesota left-hander won the ERA title by an unusually slim margin, finishing at 2.4465 while Milwaukee's Teddy Higuera was second at 2.4545. Who was that Twins pitcher? Double repeat? Not only does Skubal have a shot at winning two straight Cy Young Awards, but last year's AL MVP – Aaron Judge – has a good chance to repeat as well. Only three times has a league had back-to-back winners of both its MVP and Cy Young – and all three times it happened in the NL. Albert Pujols was MVP and Lincecum won the Cy Young in 2008 and 2009. Barry Bonds was MVP in 2001 and 2002 while Johnson was winning the Cy Young – and Bonds was also MVP in 1992 and 1993 while Maddux was taking Cy Young honors. Line of the week: Miami's Kyle Stowers, who hit three homers last Sunday in the final game before the All-Star break, added two more in the Marlins' first game back Friday night. One of those was a two-run walk-off shot that gave Miami an 8-7 win over Kansas City. Honorable mention: Minnesota's Joe Ryan allowed one run in seven innings and struck out 11 in a 7-1 win over Colorado on Sunday. The All-Star right-hander lowered his ERA to 2.63. Comeback of the week: The New York Yankees rallied from a 7-2 sixth-inning deficit to beat Atlanta 12-9 on Saturday night. Trent Grisham hit a tiebreaking grand slam with two outs in the top of the ninth. Before that, the Yankees scored four runs in the sixth and got solo homers from Cody Bellinger and Anthony Volpe in the seventh and eighth. Atlanta's win probability peaked at 96.1 percent in the fifth according to Baseball Savant. Trivia answer: No, it wasn't Frank Viola, the Minnesota lefty who went 24-7 and won the Cy Young that year. The left-hander on the Twins who edged Higuera for the ERA title was Allan Anderson.
Al Arabiya
11 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Majors-best tigers end 6-game skid with all-star tarik skubal's strong start
It was naturally a superb start by Tarik Skubal that resulted in a 2–1 Detroit Tigers win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night that ended a season-worst six-game losing streak for the team with the best record in the major leagues. However, Skubal didn't get credit for the victory. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and starter in Tuesday's All-Star Game cruised into the seventh inning with a two-hit shutout and a tenuous 1–0 lead. He left with runners at the corners and two outs, and the Rangers' Adolis García scored on a wild pitch by Tyler Holton. But Detroit's Matt Vierling hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the eighth inning, and Will Vest entered in the eighth and got four straight outs–against the top four batters in Texas' order–for his 16th save for the Tigers (60–40). Skubal left the park still with 10 wins (one shy of the AL lead), 164 strikeouts (one behind Boston's Garrett Crochet), and a 2.19 ERA (tied with Crochet for the best in the American League). 'Were the first to 60, right?' That matters more (than his personal stats), Skubal said. 'We just haven't particularly been playing our best baseball, I don't think, for the last couple weeks. That's just part of the season. Not from lack of effort or anything like that. But I knew I wanted to win today. I expect every time I go out there to put our team in position to win, and we were able to do that.' Skubal struck out 11 and walked none in his seventh double-digit strikeout game this season. His final batter was a strikeout of Jonah Heim that left him at 105 pitches, three short of his career high. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Skubal emptied his tank on the Heim at-bat and made the pitching change to avoid overworking him. 'If we're going anywhere (this season), we're going with him,' Hinch said. Two of Texas' four hits off Skubal were by Corey Seager, the lone left-handed hitter in the starting lineup against the lefty Skubal. Seager went 2 for 3 off Skubal, improving to 8 for 12 in his career. Skubal said he asked Seager during last year's All-Star festivities: 'Bro, how do I get you out? Can you tell me?' Seager, Skubal said, politely declined and claimed not to see the ball well when hitting against him. 'When he's right, the stuff he does at the dish is the best in the league,' Skubal said. Skubal is again among the best in baseball on the mound. He did his part in ending what was the major's longest active losing streak, even without getting a personal W.
