The first pitch of the biggest game in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays, live on FOX, will be thrown by future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer.
The 41-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Jays ahead of the season for what may or may not have been supposed to be a farewell tour. Suddenly, it has become much more than that.
What might have started as one final season to take it all in has turned into one of the biggest starts of Scherzer’s career.
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Scherzer has nothing left to accomplish. He’s a three-time Cy Young Award winner with two World Series titles, a lifetime 3.22 ERA and 3,489 strikeouts. He will undoubtedly go into Cooperstown in his first year on the ballot.
But none of that will be a thought for Scherzer, or any Blue Jays fan, at 8:08 p.m. ET.
This will be Scherzer’s 28th postseason start — his sixth in winner-take-all, sixth in the Fall Classic and second in Game 7 of a World Series (also 2019 with the winning Washington Nationals).
Scherzer will soon become the fourth pitcher in MLB history, along with Bob Gibson (1964, ‘67, ’68), Lew Burdette and Don Larsen (both 1957 and ‘58), to start multiple winner-take-all Fall Classic Game 7s.
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It is safe to say that Saturday’s outing will only compare to that start against the Houston Astros six years ago. That game, he gave the Nats five innings of two-run ball, relying on late home runs from Anthony Rendon, Howie Kendrick and Juan Soto, and Patrick Corbin and Daniel Hudson out of the bullpen to preserve the victory.
That outing was in a hostile Houston environment. On Saturday, he will be pitching in front of the home Blue Jays crowd that is starving for its first title since 1993.
Scherzer has not announced his intentions for the future just yet. But if Saturday goes how a Hollywood scriptwriter would want it (ironically, he’ll be facing his former Los Angeles Dodgers), no one could blame him for riding into the sunset on quite that high a note.
In all likelihood, Scherzer’s Hall of Fame plaque will show him in a Nationals cap, as that’s where he has spent most of his 18-year career. But if all goes how he hopes, he will be a Toronto hero forever, even with a short tenure.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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