SCHERZER VS. KERSHAW: A RARE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN 3,000-STRIKEOUT PITCHERS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Max Scherzer vs. Clayton Kershaw sounds like an enticing postseason matchup in October. Fans won’t have to wait that long. The likely Hall of Famers square off Friday in a rare contest between the most recent members of baseball’s 3,000-strikeout club.
“You probably aren’t going to see that very often these days,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I have a lot of respect for Max. It’ll be good to see him and hopefully we can have our way with him.”
Scherzer is, alongside his left-handed opponent, perhaps one of this generation’s greatest pitchers. He and Kershaw have each won World Series titles and are three-time Cy Young Award winners. Scherzer, 41, is an eight-time All-Star, while the 37-year-old Kershaw has 11 All-Star appearances, including this year as a Legend Pick by Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Scherzer became the 19th member of the 3,000-strikeout club while pitching for the Dodgers in September 2021. Kershaw joined him as the 20th member last month. The duo, along with Justin Verlander, are the only active pitchers to reach the 3,000-strikeout mark.
“I loved playing with him. I love competing against him. I have all the respect in the world for him,” Scherzer said from Colorado, where the Toronto Blue Jays earned a sweep this week. “We’ve been pitching for so long, you don’t know how many more chances you are going to get at this, to face somebody of his ilk. This is what you dream of, facing the best. It should be a lot of fun.”
But such a high-stakes duel doesn’t always live up to the anticipation.
In September 2023, Scherzer and Verlander squared off for the first time in a matchup of 200-game winners. Scherzer, then with Texas, didn’t make it to the fourth inning. Verlander, also a three-time Cy Young Award winner who was then with Houston, scattered six hits over seven innings.
Rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer has a locker just a few feet from Kershaw’s in the Dodgers clubhouse. He also played against Scherzer last season in a rehab outing.
“The way they go about their business is what separates them. To an extent there’s the talent, but they also just work harder than everybody else, especially Kersh,” Dreyer said. “It’s not always easy to listen to guys if they’re talking to you about how to get better but you don’t see them doing it. With him, it’s just so easy because I see him working his butt off every single day. He’s the easiest guy in the world to learn from.”
Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly will be watching Scherzer and Kershaw, who he managed in LA from 2011-15.
“They work. They are detailed in what they want to do,” Mattingly said in Colorado.
Mattingly credits then-Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt for helping Kershaw develop a slider to add to the primary fastball-changeup mix that he used early in his 18-year career.
“Just that two-pitch combo is tough. Umps miss that curveball because it is big. So they’d ‘ball’ it on him,” Mattingly said. “Then he came with the slider, which really changed him, being able to get down under the right-hander. Speed them up a little bit, and then that curveball was kind of a putaway when he had that going.”
Friday’s series opener at Dodger Stadium is a matchup of division leaders. The Blue Jays lead the AL East by four games over Boston. The Dodgers’ NL West lead over San Diego has shriveled to two.
And that’s ultimately what matters to Scherzer.
“If you start putting the importance on this matchup with them and put your attention toward this, you are going to overlook some other things,” he said. “They won the World Series last year. They’re the champs. You want a shot at the champs. You want to beat them. That’s what this game is about.”
MLB ROUNDUP: MARINERS WALK OFF WHITE SOX IN 11 INNINGS TO COMPLETE SWEEP
Dominic Canzone singled home the winning run with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated visiting Chicago White Sox 4-3 Thursday afternoon to complete a sweep of the three-game series.
Randy Arozarena hit a two-run homer for the Mariners, who improved to 6-1 on their 10-game homestand and pulled within 1 1/2 games of division-leading Houston in the American League West. Seattle starter Logan Gilbert went five innings and allowed one run on two hits.
Michael A. Taylor and Brooks Baldwin hit solo shots for the White Sox, who lost their fourth in a row. Starter Shane Smith went five innings and gave up two runs on four hits.
Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor, acquired from Arizona before the trade deadline, left before the start of the fourth inning with shoulder soreness and is considered day-to-day. Naylor appeared to be in discomfort on swings while at bat in the previous inning.
Athletics 6, Nationals 0
Jacob Lopez struck out a career-high 10 batters over 7 2/3 scoreless innings, fueling the visiting Athletics to a shutout victory over Washington.
Colby Thomas belted a two-run shot in the second inning for his first career homer. He also had a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Tyler Soderstrom’s solo homer in the eighth inning extended his hitting streak to a season-best eight games.
Washington starter Mitchell Parker (7-12) was tagged for four runs on six hits over five innings of work as the team suffered its seventh loss in the last eight games.
Pirates 7, Reds 0
Paul Skenes tossed six shutout innings and struck out eight to lead host Pittsburgh to a victory over Cincinnati.
Despite allowing a career-high seven hits (five singles), Skenes (7-8) delivered another dominant performance to bolster his case for the National League Cy Young Award. Jared Triolo and Henry Davis each had two hits and two RBIs to give Skenes more than enough of a cushion to secure a win for the third time in his past four starts. It was Skenes’ third consecutive start with eight or more strikeouts.
Bryan Reynolds, who also had two hits, homered in the first inning off Reds’ starter Brady Singer (9-9), who lasted only 3 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on six hits, walked four and struck out two.
Braves 8, Marlins 6
Rookie Drake Baldwin hit two homers and drove in five runs as Atlanta erased a four-run deficit to beat visiting Miami Marlins in the opener of a five-game series.
Baldwin went 3-for-5 with his 12th and 13th homers. He also knocked in the tying run with a seventh-inning RBI single and scored the go-ahead run later that frame.
Marlins reliever Josh Simpson (2-1) took the loss, allowing two runs, one earned, in one-third of an inning. Graham Pauley hit a two-run homer, his third, to cap off the Marlins’ five-run second inning.
