Scherzer Looks Strong in Sahlen Field Start

By: Brian Frank

Max Scherzer took the mound for the Buffalo Bisons on Sunday afternoon, making a rehab start for the Herd for the third time in the last two seasons. The three-time Cy Young Award winner went on the injured list in late April due to forearm tendinitis and ankle inflammation. He looked as if his injury issues were behind him against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

"I feel good," Scherzer said following his outing. "Those ailments that were plaguing me, the forearm especially — the forearm is in a great spot. I don't have any symptoms there anymore. The foot was just a little irritation, and that was fine. So from a physical standpoint it felt good. I was out there aggressively trying to get through the ball and was. I was kind of getting the balls in the areas I wanted to. Trying to shake some rust off here in the beginning, get back out there. It was my first time back in a game in about a month. It was good to be back out there."

Scherzer fired 41 pitches in his rehab outing. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles

Scherzer opened the afternoon by striking out Lehigh Valley leadoff hitter Dylan Carlson, retiring Felix Reyes on a flyout, and getting Gabriel Rincones Jr. to ground out to first.

He recorded his second strikeout to open the second inning before issuing back-to-back walks. He then initiated a nifty double play, deflecting a hard ground ball up the middle, picking it up and firing to second baseman Josh Kasevich, who relayed to first baseman Riley Tirotta to end the frame.

"I was executing," Scherzer said. "On those walks, it's just the slider was getting away from me. I was pulling them glove slide. That's just a sign of rust, so that's why I kept throwing it. Like, hey, we're going to get it. We're going to get it going. That's just a product of not pitching for a while. But I settled down and made pitches when I needed to."

The future Hall of Famer worked a 1-2-3 third inning to finish his day at 41 pitches, 24 of which were strikes. His fastball touched 94 mph multiple times throughout the outing. The 41-year-old struck out four and walked two without allowing a hit over three innings.

"I could have (continued), but I just have to be careful here in this ramp up. Just take the progress out of today, it's part of the ramp up, and just get ready to get back out there and increase the pitch count."

Another rehab outing appears likely as Scherzer builds his pitch count.

"We'll discuss the next steps of what we want to do out of the next start and what we want to get out of it," he said. "Those will be conversations I'll have with the team and the organization in the coming days."

With injuries decimating Toronto's rotation and the Blue Jays recently resorting to bullpen days, Scherzer's return would be a significant boost to the defending American League champions' pitching staff. But the future Hall of Famer knows not to rush.

"I'm a human," he said when asked if he felt an urgency to return. "I get what's going on here. Yes, of course you feel urgency, but you have to be smart. You have to realize that you can only do what your body's allowing you to do. So you have to do the proper ramp up. You've got to do the right thing here. You can't try to chew off too much too early. That can lead to other problems. Like I said, I'm happy because my forearm is in a great spot and that really allows me to throw the ball the way I want to."

The eight-time All-Star and owner of two no-hitters and a 20 strikeout game was appreciative of the reception he received from the 9,259 Buffalo baseball fans in attendance.

"It's great," he said. "Fans everywhere, and so I want to go out there and compete. Go out there and do my thing. It's always nice to have fans be appreciative of what you can do."