Max Scherzer gave John Schneider the rehab start the Blue Jays needed Sunday, and it looked a lot more like progress than hope.
Pitching for Triple-A Buffalo, Scherzer threw 3 scoreless innings in his first official rehab outing since going on the injured list. That alone made this a meaningful step for Toronto.
The line looked sharp, too. Scherzer struck out 4, walked 2, and threw 41 pitches, with 24 of them going for strikes. He did not allow a hit.
The fastball was where Blue Jays fans probably looked first. It sat in the 92-94 mph range, right where Toronto had seen it earlier this season, and pitch tracking on the outing put his average fastball at 93.3 mph.
That matters because Scherzer did not just survive the outing. He looked like a pitcher whose stuff still had some life to it, and his slider helped there, too, getting 4 of his 7 whiffs.
This outing also came after a week of clear progress. Scherzer had just gotten through live batting practice in Toronto, and Sunday was the first chance to see how the arm responded in a real game setting.
Toronto needed that checkpoint badly. Scherzer has been out since April 25 with right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation, and the Blue Jays have spent too much of this season patching together innings around injuries.
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Why this Max Scherzer outing mattered
The outing did not answer everything, but it checked the right boxes. Scherzer got through multiple innings, kept the ball off barrels, and finished the day with the kind of line that lets a club think about the next step instead of another delay.
The workload was a little lighter than the 40-60 pitch range John Schneider had outlined before the start, but that is not a bad sign on its own. It just means the Blue Jays got a clean first look and now can build from there.
That is important because Toronto does not need Scherzer back as a sideshow. The Blue Jays need the version of him that can hold a rotation spot and settle games for a staff that keeps getting stretched.
Before the injury, Scherzer had made 5 starts for Toronto and posted a 9.64 ERA. So this rehab start was never only about getting healthy. It was about showing there is still something real to come back to.
Sunday gave the Blue Jays that kind of sign. Max Scherzer looked efficient, his fastball had good life, and the strikeout total said hitters still were not seeing him comfortably.
That is why this outing landed so well. It was not a full return, and it was not the finish line. But it was the first real game step back, and for Toronto, it looked like one worth believing in.
Did Max Scherzer show enough in Buffalo to help the Blue Jays soon?
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