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Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Max Scherzer was not going to leave the game.
Scherzer, 41, let manager John Schneider have it when his skipper approached the mound to take him out of the game during the fifth inning of the team’s 8-2 win over the Seattle Mariners in Game 4 of the ALCS Thursday night at T-Mobile Park.
Scherzer, nicknamed “Mad Max” for his intensity during his starts, made his first start of the postseason on Thursday after being left off the ALDS roster with neck pain. Schneider got a firsthand taste of why Scherzer is nicknamed “Mad Max” during his mound visit.
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“I thought he was going to kill me. It was great. He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out,” Schneider said with a smile. “He has this Mad Max persona, but he backed it up tonight.”
The three-time Cy Young winner said he wanted the ball in that moment. Scherzer said he was busy thinking about the sequence of pitches he wanted to throw to Randy Arozarena.
“And all of a sudden, I see Schneids coming out, and it kind of caught me off guard,” Scherzer explained. “That’s just one of those moments where I know I wanted the ball. I knew the situation of the game. I wanted the ball, and I basically told him that in a little bit different language.”
Schneider heeded Scherzer’s passionate plea to stay in and was rewarded with a strikeout of Arozarena. It was a key moment in the Blue Jays’ win, one that evened the series at 2-2.
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“When a Hall of Famer like this tells you he’s good, you ought to leave him in the game,” first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. said. “And he showed he’s good.”
“I tried to stay away from him,” teammate George Springer said. “You don’t really want to get in Max’s way, so you kind of just let Max be Max. It was entertaining, for sure.”
Schneider said he had been waiting to be yelled at all year.
“I’ve been waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound. I think, at that point, there’s numbers, there’s projections, there’s strategy and there’s people. So I was trusting people,” Schneider said.
Scherzer pitched 5⅔ innings and gave up two runs on three hits and four walks while striking out five Mariners.
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The Blue Jays’ offense, meanwhile, picked up where it left off after scoring 13 runs in Game 3. Andrés Giménez hit a two-run homer in the third inning for the second consecutive day, this one off starter Luis Castillo to give the Blue Jays a lead it didn’t relinquish. The Blue Jays tacked on another run in the inning when reliever Gabe Speier walked in a run.
Scherzer’s outing, coupled with the Blue Jays’ offense, helped them even the series at 2-2 as they head into a critical Game 5.
The Mariners and Blue Jays will play Game 5 at 6:08 p.m. ET on Friday, the final game of the series in Seattle. Games 6 and 7, if necessary, will be played in Toronto.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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