Three-time Cy Young winner returns to LA after disappointing Dodgers

TORONTO —The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t say anything publicly and while the bitterness has faded, there still are harsh feelings.

The year was 2021.

Max Scherzer was the best starter on their staff after acquiring him at the trade deadline.

He was going to lead them to their second consecutive World Series title.

Until he didn’t.

Scherzer, who was scheduled to start Game 6 of the 2021 NLCS against Atlanta, instead couldn’t go, saying he needed more time with his tired arm.

Scherzer didn’t pitch that night.

Walker Buehler did.

And the Dodgers’ season ended with Scherzer never having another chance to pitch again in a Dodgers uniform.

Now here comes Scherzer again, this time trying to ruin their opportunity to go back-to-back, pitching Game 3 for the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium.

Scherzer, who saved the Blue Jays’ season with a strong outing in Game 4 of the ALCS to beat the Seattle Mariners while trailing 2 games to 1, refuses to look at his start as a chance for revenge. He’s not trying to make up for his last World Series start prematurely ending after three innings for the Texas Rangers in 2023. He’s not trying to show teams that they missed out on signing him this past winter or anything else.

“I wouldn’t characterize it like that,’ Scherzer said Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series. “I’m here to compete. I’m here to win. I wouldn’t be looking backwards at all for any motivation. I have plenty of motivation.

“I’m here to win and I’ve got a clubhouse full of guys who want to win, too. So, we’re a great team and that’s the only thing I need to think about.’

Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young winner and two-time World Series champon, was brilliant for the Dodgers after being traded by the Washington Nationals in 2021. He went 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA in 11 regular-season starts for L.A. and yielded a 2.16 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 16⅔ innings in four appearances during the postseason.

He was scheduled to start Game 6 against Atlanta in the NLCS, but said his arm didn’t feel right, and the Dodgers went with Buehler on short rest.

The Dodgers lost, 4-2, and their season was over.

Scherzer went on to sign a three-year, $130 million free agent contract with the New York Mets.

Buehler made 12 starts in 2022, underwent Tommy John surgery, and was done pitching for two years.

Four years later, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is praising Scherzer’s competitiveness.

“Max, he’s one of one,’ Roberts said. “Great competitor. Don’t want to touch him during outings, don’t want to pat him on the back side. Wants to be the guy. I really enjoyed managing a future Hall of Famer.

“He’s very smart. He’s a baseball player first, then a pitcher. It’s very focused. It’s very intentional. He does a lot of his own homework. He’s very prepared. He asks a lot of questions, a lot of it from the hitter’s perspective, which is really smart.’’

And, oh yeah, he can be intense.

They call him Mad Max for a reason.

When Blue Jays manager John Schneider went to the mound in the fifth inning to possibly take him out of the game against the Mariners, Scherzer shooed him away. He wasn’t coming out of that game until he was good and ready.

So when Schneider informed Scherzer that he would be starting Game 3, it was only natural to wonder whether Scherzer actually told him.

“Great question,’ Schneider said. ‘I told him.’

Yet, Schneider acknowledged, Scherzer actually wanted to know when he was starting during their pennant-clinching celebration in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse.

“He was asking what we were doing after Game 7,’ Schneider said, “and I was like, ‘Max, I’m enjoying a beer, man.’ He’s so regimented and wants to know what he’s doing, and the fact he’s been through this too, I’m listening to his feedback as we go.

“He’s stepped on land mines. He’s dodged land mines in a World Series, in a seven-game series.’’

Now, Scherzer has a chance to become the only pitcher to win at least three Cy Young awards and win three World Series titles with three different teams.

He owes a debt of gratitude, he said, to Blue Jays veteran Chris Bassitt, his former teammate with the New York Mets, who convinced him that the Blue Jays were capable of winning a championship after finishing last in the AL East a year ago.

“He has a really good pulse on what this clubhouse and the team needed,’ Scherzer said. “And we were talking kind of throughout the whole offseason. When things started moving in my direction, it just kind of seemed to all click, that getting back with him would be a great thing for me and that this was a team that could really go somewhere. They just needed to make a few adjustments.

“But he was really kind of the eyes and ears of what this team could be.’

Scherzer, 41, struggled most of the season with injuries (5-5, 5.19 ERA), and after going 0-3 with a 10.20 ERA in September, was left off the AL Division Series postseason roster. He returned in the ALCS, and gave up just three hits and two runs in 5⅔ innings against the Mariners, evening the ALCS with an 8-2 victory.

Now, it’s Mad Max’s turn to be on center stage again, pitching in his fourth World Series and the 32nd postseason game of his career.

“I mean, this is what you play for,’ Scherzer said, “to be able to get to this spot, to get to this moment, to have a shot at it. You just think about, throughout your whole life, all the different things that have unfolded, and just so fortunate to have another crack at this.

“There’s so many great players that have never gotten to a World Series, so many great players where they only have one World Series. With [bench coach] Donnie [Mattingly] on our team, you know, he’s gone his whole career and now this is his first moment. I absolutely respect playing in a World Series, what that means, and absolutely cherish these opportunities. So, when I get a chance to get the ball, man, this means everything.’’

And, really, no matter whether this is Scherzer’s swan song, or he plans to continue pitching, this game could be a beautiful bookend to his Hall of Fame scrapbook.

“That’s what’s awesome about baseball at this stage,’ Scherzer said. “You got the two best teams in the world going at each other, with everybody watching, with all the chips on the table. So, that’s what makes you excited as a ball player, that you get this type of opportunity to play in this type of environment.

“There’s nothing like it.

“There’s nothing like it in the world that can give you this type of adrenaline rush.’