Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — Now that the bummer of losing the NL West has been processed, Dodger fans are readying themselves for a deep playoff run in 2021. To do that, they will have to survive the winner-take-all Wild Card game on Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals. The good news? Dodgers starter for the game Max Scherzer absolutely shoves against the Redbirds.
It may be that Mad Max just feels a little extra amped up when he faces the team he used to root for as a boy in Missouri. Or it may just be that Max is pretty awesome a lot. But whatever, the reason, Dodger fans have to be feeling pretty good about Scherzer’s chances to keep the Cardinals’ hitters at bay on Wednesday. Let’s take a look at some recent history.
Only one clunker in four years
Since 2017, Scherzer has made seven different starts against the Cards, six when pitching with the Nationals, and one in September for the Dodgers. In six of those starts, Scherzer made a so-called “quality start” (six innings, three or fewer earned runs). And in the one clunker of the bunch, a 5-1 loss in September 2019, that was nearly a good outing as well. It took three Cardinal runs in the bottom of the seventh (two on a Matt Wieters homers) to finally lose the game for Scherzer.
In addition, Scherzer was dominant in his playoff start against Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals during the Nats’ 2019 playoff run. In Game 2 of the NLCS, Scherzer went seven shutout innings, giving up no earned runs while striking out eleven. Trea Turner homered in the game, and Scherzer did the rest, completely shutting down the Cardinals’ offense. Wainwright was no slouch himself, but Sherzer was not going to be denied.
2021 Max: Perfect against the Cards
If earlier versions of Scherzer against the Cardinals were good, the 2021 outings have been spectacular. He’s only faced the Cardinals twice: once in April with the Nats in D.C., and then again on September 6 when the Dodgers came into St. Louis after the disappointing showing against the Giants in San Francisco. But both of these games have been masterclasses in pitching…
Oddly enough, both outings were day games. In the start in April, the former Nationals’ ace ran into some early trouble with a hit-by-pitch, a one-out infield single and a walk loading the bases in the top of the first, but swinging Ks from Dylan Carlson and Matt Carpenter got the Nationals’ starter through a scoreless, 26-pitch frame.
After that, Scherzer calmed down and started to mow through the Cardinals batting order, at one point retiring twelve in a row. He left the game after the seventh, having pitched scoreless ball all afternoon. Max’s final line on the day: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K.
Then, Scherzer was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline in July, and would get another shot at his hometown team in September, but this time at Busch Stadium in the shadow of the Gateway Arch. During the series, Scherzer made sure to grab a selfie of himself and former Cardinals hero Albert Pujols with the Arch in the background, as I’m sure there were many a night when the teenage Max cheered on the young Albert’s exploits in a Cardinal uniform. Once game day came though, Max was all business.
Scherzer was nearly unhittable on the mound that September afternoon. The Cardinals’ hitters looked completely lost against him. In fact if not for a wild pitch in the sixth inning, it would have been another scoreless outing for the Dodgers’ ace. In a very efficient day at the ballpark, Scherzer pitched eight innings on just 103 pitches, landing 74 of them for strikes. He struck out thirteen Cardinals and only gave up six hits along the way. It was pretty near domination. If it weren’t for the even more dominant start against the Padres later in September, you could make the argument that this was Scherzer’s best in a Dodger uniform. And that is a very high bar indeed. His final line on the day: 8.0 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB 13 K.
Don’t buy those plane tickets to SFO yet
However, we don’t have our ticket punched for the NLDS just yet. Scherzer has looked very human in his last two starts, giving up five earned runs in each game. During September, his season ERA “ballooned” up to 2.46 from its low of 2.08 in the middle of the month. And, we must acknowledge Scherzer and the Dodgers saw the Cardinals just before their incredible 17-game winning streak. In fact, the winning streak began with the Cards’ very next series. They dropped the opener to the Cincinnati Reds and they never looked back for two and a half weeks. So I wouldn’t necessarily vote for the Cardinals in this Wild Card game, but I definitely wouldn’t bet against them.
And another guy I’m not betting against is Max Scherzer.
