NEW YORK — The latest update on Max Scherzer is that there is no update.
Before Tuesday’s game, Mets manager Buck Showalter told reporters that the team will make a decision regarding Scherzer on Wednesday. The options are either to have Scherzer pitch Friday’s game in Miami, push his start to a few days after that or skip his turn in the rotation completely.
Scherzer left his last start, which came on Saturday against the Nationals, with fatigue in his left oblique. In May, Scherzer hit the injured list with a strain in that same oblique, which led to him missing a month and a half of game action. After Saturday’s game — in which he took himself out after just five innings and 67 pitches — Scherzer made clear that this was not a repeat of the same injury.
“I don’t have any strains,” he said to SNY during a postgame interview. “The left side was just getting tired a lot quicker than usual.”
He also said that he could have pitched the sixth inning of that game if needed, but the risk of making the injury worse led to his early departure.
“This was a precautionary move given the history of the oblique here,” Scherzer added.
Since coming back from that oblique injury on July 5, Scherzer has been remarkable. He’s pitched to a 2.08 ERA in 12 starts, striking out 94 hitters and walking 12. That span includes seven innings of shutout ball against both the Yankees and Braves, as well as a seven-inning, one-run performance against the Phillies. Scherzer has recorded double-digit strikeout totals in four of his 12 starts since returning from injury.
Last season, while pitching for the Dodgers, Scherzer blamed the pitch count limit that the Dodgers put on him as the main reason for his “dead arm” in the 2021 National League Championship Series. Because of that, don’t expect the Mets to treat Scherzer with kid gloves down the stretch.
When the veteran righty is ready to pitch, he’ll pitch. We just don’t know when exactly that will be yet.
