LOS ANGELES ― The Max Scherzer who fluttered to the finish line of the regular season made a brief appearance at the outset of Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
It was the first batter of the game. The San Francisco Giants’ Tommy La Stella was waiting for the 2-and-1 pitch from Scherzer, who lost his balance as a fierce wind whipped across his body. He stumbled awkwardly, turned around, then tried again.
The scene echoed the ninth inning of the 1961 All-Star Game, when Giants pitcher Stu Miller was blown off the mound at windy Candlestick Park in San Francisco. But Scherzer would not indulge another flutter Monday, only an Evan Longoria home run that provided the only run in a 1-0 Dodgers loss.
These were the only blemishes on Scherzer’s start, his best in a Dodger uniform in weeks. He retired 10 batters in a row after Buster Posey singled in the first inning. He retired nine in a row after Longoria’s home run, a towering blast on an 0-and-2 fastball to left-center field in the fifth inning.
When he left the mound to high-fives and handshakes after the seventh inning, Scherzer had allowed just three hits, walked one batter and struck out 10. It was the kind of performance Scherzer used to spoil fans since his arrival in a deadline-day trade with the Washington Nationals.
“He threw a heck of a game for us,” Dodgers first baseman Albert Pujols said. “Gave us an opportunity to win the game today.”
The Dodgers had not lost any of Scherzer’s first 12 starts since the trade. Despite a vintage performance – his fourth postseason start of seven innings or more, two runs or less, and at least 10 strikeouts – he might have ended his Dodgers career with a loss.
Scherzer, 37, is a free agent after the World Series ends.
“You get to the postseason, you can always lose by one pitch,” he said. “That comes into play. Tonight I lost on one pitch.”
According to Statcast, 13 balls were hit 100 mph or harder Monday. Nine were hit by Dodgers. All but one was on the ground, or subject to the same unyielding zephyrs that knocked Scherzer off-balance.
The lone exception was a fastball over the middle of the plate to Longoria that left the bat at 110 mph. Scherzer said he was trying to locate the pitch above the strike zone, the only misfire among his season-high 110 pitches Monday.
“I knew I got every bit of it as far as how hard I could hit a baseball,” Longoria said. “I wasn’t quite sure that it was going to go out. The conditions tonight were crazy.”
In his first nine starts as a Dodger, Scherzer was 7-0 with a 0.78 ERA. He seized the NL lead in ERA and put himself at the top of the conversation for a Cy Young Award.
Two shaky starts followed, one against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field and another at home against the San Diego Padres. The five-pitch mix he had used to befuddle hitters in August and September was diminished.
Even as he allowed just one run in the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL wild-card game last Wednesday, Scherzer appeared far from his peak.
“The first couple innings, (Scherzer) was a little not himself and then made the adjustment mid-game in the third, fourth, fifth inning,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said of that game. “Kind of got back on track to more himself.”
Scherzer said he made an adjustment to his lower body that “synced up my upper half.”
“When I was able to get through the first inning – I didn’t realize how much the wind was going to affect me; it was pushing me toward home plate – I was able to find some rhythm. I was able to execute five pitches,” he said. “That’s what made for a good outing.”
Optimistically, Scherzer would be available to pitch Game 1 of a potential NL Championship Series should the Dodgers advance.
If not, his final start of 2021 made for a classic performance that deserved a better fate.
“The changeup, the life to the fastball, the cutter, the slider was back,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Scherzer. “He threw a heck of a ball game.”