NEW YORK—Max Scherzer didn’t experience any issues with his back on Sunday afternoon, but the same cannot be said about his ability to keep the ball in the park.
The Blue Jays right-hander has had problems with home runs since he came off the injured list in late June, and that trend continued in Sunday’s series finale here against the New York Yankees.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner served up a three-run homer to Ben Rice in the first inning and the Jays never recovered in a 4-3 loss. The Yankees won the series 2-1 and pulled within two games of the Jays for first place in the American League East.
“When I threw the fastball, 3-2, I didn’t get it all the way where I needed to,” said Scherzer, who also issued a season-high four walks. “I got up in the zone, but didn’t get it all the way to the rail, or get it up and in enough. I had to pay for that.”
Scherzer has allowed 1.94 home runs per nine innings this season, the highest rate of his career. If he had enough innings to qualify, it would be the most by any big-league starter. Over his last 14 1/3 innings, the ratio has been even higher with five homers.
There have only been three starts out of 14 in which Scherzer didn’t allow a home run and two were against the Cleveland Guardians and Pittsburgh Pirates, who rank in the bottom 10 of that department. Scherzer was getting away with it earlier in the season, but not lately with a 7.53 ERA over his last three outings.
Part of the issue has been erratic command. Scherzer threw first-pitch strikes to just nine of the 20 batters he faced on Sunday while also giving up a lot of hard contact. Beyond the Rice homer, Cody Bellinger hit an RBI double off the top of the wall in the third and there were several close calls that went foul.
Scherzer was charged with all four runs across 4 1/3 innings. That offset another big day at the plate for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had an RBI double in the third and finished 2-for-4. It was his fifth consecutive game with multiple hits. Nathan Lukes also had a pair of singles, but was thrown out at second in the ninth on a botched hit-and-run.
“Frustrating that we lost, frustrated with how I pitched, too many walks,” Scherzer said. “But we’re competitive and we’re putting together good (at-bats), everybody is doing their job. As much as this one stinks, we’re still playing good.
“It’s September, you want to win — you want to play your best baseball now — but there’s no reason to think we need to change anything. We just have to continue playing good baseball. The wins and losses will take care of themselves.”
The Jays arrived in New York with the goal of cementing their spot atop the East. With a three-game lead and only three weeks to go, a sweep would have all ended the Yankees’ hopes for first place. Even winning two of three might have been enough because the Jays own the tiebreaker.
Instead, they allowed their rivals to stay alive. The Yankees climbed back to within striking distance, and after series against the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox they will close out the schedule with three matchups against sub-.500 teams, which puts them in prime position to make a move.
The road won’t be as easy for the Jays. After an off-day Monday, they will open a three-game home set against the AL-West leading Houston Astros. The only sub-.500 team the Jays get the rest of the way is the Baltimore Orioles, who have a winning record against them.
“It’s two teams that know each other well,” Jays manager John Schneider said in summing up the series against the Yankees. “They made a couple more pitches and had a couple more big swings than we did this weekend, after we played a pretty complete game on Friday.
“Happy with the way we played against them, for sure. You try to win every series, so you wish today was a little bit different, but there’s 19 big games left. I know there’s a little extra oomph put into this weekend series against the Yanks, but every game for us is big.”
One bit of good news for the Jays came via the out-of-town scoreboard. The Red Sox lost a series to the Arizona Diamondbacks, so while the Yankees gained ground, the Jays’ other East rival didn’t move an inch this weekend.
With little time left in the season, that’s another big development. And as a result the Jays have a 67.3 per cent chance of winning the division, . The unfortunate part is that it could have been even higher.
The Jays went for the knockout punch this weekend and missed. They’re still in good shape, but the blown opportunity could come back to haunt them.
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