Blue Jays blast D'backs as Max Scherzer's long-awaited return could be as soon as next week
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The boxscore will show that Eric Lauer made his fourth start of the season Wednesday night at the Rogers Centre, allowing one earned run over five-plus innings in a blowout 8-1 Blue Jays win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
However, with due respect to the lefty’s latest handiwork — which included eight strikeouts on Wednesday — the Jays are hoping and intending this latest outing was just keeping the rubber warm in that spot of the rotation for the long-awaited return of it’s big off-season pitching acquisition, Max Scherzer.
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Blue Jays blast D'backs as Max Scherzer's long-awaited return could be as soon as next week Back to video
With that in mind, as the Jays breezed to their second in a row over the D’Backs, the bigger development in the zoomed-out view of their season unfolded down in Worcester, Mass., where Scherzer was brilliant in what surely had the feel of his final rehab start with the Jays’ triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons.
The 40-year-old veteran reached his intended pitch limit of 75 and did so by striking out eight Red Sox hitters over 4.1 scoreless innings. Assuming everything is OK with Scherzer’s bothersome thumb, returning to a big league mound for just his second start with the Jays next Tuesday in Cleveland is a real possibility.
“Having the name, having the competitiveness, having the stuff,” Jays manager John Schneider said when asked prior to Wednesday’s game what Scherzer could bring to his team. “It would be huge just to have him, knowing that you have that calibre of pitcher waiting on your staff every fifth day would be a nice shot in the arm.”
It would be much more than that, of course. The Jays rotation has been in tatters over the past month, held together by overusing the bullpen at times and sticking with struggling Bowden Francis. That’s why Lauer’s effort was so critical on Wednesday, causing minimal strain on a bullpen that will be asked to cover multiple innings here on Friday against the Chicago White Sox.
In fact, Lauer has been so reliable for the Jays that, down the road, he could slide into the other black hole of the rotation.
Bigger things first, though. When you have a three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion ready to contribute, you tend to get a little bit excited if you are the Blue Jays. Following the game, Schneider cautioned that the next couple of days will be critical for Scherzer to see how he bounces back.
“The line was great and what we saw on video looked really good too,” Schneider said of Scherzer, who hasn’t pitched in the bigs since a three-inning outing on March 29.
Next up is to see how Scherzer recovered from the Worcester work and how he responds again after he throws a side session later in the week. If all goes well, the green light may flash for an accomplished right arm that has the potential to be an ace-like influence.
“That would be good,” Schneider said with a smile and no further explanation when next Tuesday was raised as a possibility for Scherzer. “That would line up nicely.”
It would also give the Jays the boost that they need at a time of the season when wear and tear starts to hit pitching staffs around baseball.
And as easy as it is to forget, given that Scherzer has spent 70 games on the injured list with that wonky thumb, the Jays paid him $15.5 million US on a one-year deal for a reason.
Prior to Wednesday’s win, the Jays’ 14th in their past 19 to move their record to 40-33, Schneider was asked what it was like to be on the other side when Scherzer’s name came up as a probable pitcher for the opposition.
“It sucked,” the manager said. “You know what you were getting into. You know that it’s a future Hall of Famer that knows how to pitch. And whether he’s got 94 (miles per hour on his fastball) or 98 in the tank that night, he knows what he’s doing.”
Down in Worcester, Scherzer certainly appeared to be accelerating on the right track, with a fastball hovering around 94 miles per hour and confounding triple-A hitters.
“He always thinks his stuff is ready,” Schneider said. “I think it’s more the physical part, how he’s feeling tonight, tomorrow and the days in between. He thinks he could strike everybody out right now.”
Doing it for the Blue Jays and doing so soon could be one of the biggest developments of a season headed in the right direction for the better part of the past month.
HOME COOKIN’
On Wednesday, the Jays picked up where they left off in Tuesday’s dramatic ninth-inning comeback victory, when leadoff hitter Bo Bichette launched his 10th homer of the season in the first, a 418-foot blast to centre field.
They broke it open in the sixth when back-to-back doubles from Addison Barger and Vlad Guerrero Jr. (and how are those bats back-to-back working for you?) were part of a three-run burst to increase the lead to 5-1 before a crowd of 27,635.
Barger continued his torrid play at the plate with a pair of doubles and a single. Of his 46 base hits this season, 24 have been for extra bases.
In taking the first two against the D’Backs for a rousing start to a six-game home stand, the Jays have now won 11 of their past 12 Rogers Centre contests.
That three-game weekend sweep at the hands of the Phillies in Philadelphia is the Jays’ only series loss in their previous seven.
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