LOS ANGELES – Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw first clashed Sept. 7, 2008, during their rookie seasons, understudies thrust onto the mainstage when Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux were both scratched from one final duel between the two all-time greats. Only 17 years later, it is clear that one pair of now Hall of Famers was replaced by another set of Cooperstown-bound hurlers, which is what made their sixth, and perhaps final, meeting Friday night so highly anticipated.
Together, they have six Cy Young Awards, 19 all-star selections and four World Series championships, becoming undeniably the class of their generation. They may also very well be the last pitchers to surpass each of the 200-win, 3,000-strikeout and 2,800-inning plateaus, making it a marquee matchup with an end-of-an-era feel.
“Yeah and it’s also not so much watch us now, but go back and hey, this is what we did when we were coming up,” Scherzer said in advance of the outing. “We came up together, we got developed kind of the same way, where we had much higher pitch counts, things that we were working on. It’s different in today’s game. I get it. But some of the principles can stand the test of time.”
Maybe, although that’s also underselling the unicorn nature of their drive, intellect and natural ability, which is how Scherzer, at 41, and Kershaw, at 37, managed to deliver yet another compelling duel in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Each went six innings before a sell-out crowd of 53,825 at an electric Dodger Stadium also celebrating a Kobe Bryant Night. Kershaw bent first, allowing a run in the second on Addison Barger’s single to right, before Scherzer made one mistake in the fifth, when he hung a first-pitch slider that Mookie Betts hammered for a two-run shot that put the defending World Series champions ahead 2-1.
“Got to execute all throughout the game – they’re too good,” Scherzer lamented. “Shows that you make a couple mistakes and when they can get you, they get you.”
The Dodgers pushed the game out of reach in the seventh when Brendon Little opened the inning with a four-pitch walk, Shohei Ohtani’s chopper off went Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s glove put men on first and third and Betts’ chopper to short allowed Alex Freeland just ahead of Bichette’s throw home. After Freddie Freeman walked to load the bases, Louis Varland walked Will Smith to score another run and surrendered a Teoscar Hernandez sacrifice fly before escaping the jam.
The loss ended a three-game win streak for the Blue Jays (68-49), who went from pounding the pitiful Colorado Rockies to wrestling with the relentless depth of the enviable Dodgers (67-49). It wasn’t the opening they wanted in a series featuring division leaders and it cost them a game in the standings as two hours south, the Boston Red Sox (65-52) pounded the San Diego Padres 10-2, but the way Scherzer felt during the outing carries wider significance.
Saying he seems to be “finally making a breakthrough” that puts his problematic right thumb “in a much better spot,” Scherzer threw his four hardest pitches of the season during the first inning and felt that “from the first pitch to the last pitch” he had the “strength to execute pitches.”
“I kind of feel normal. From a hand standpoint, this is the best I’ve felt since spring training. I told you I wasn’t going to celebrate until I was making starts and recovering from them. This is the closest thing we’ve got to it,” he added. “I feel like I’m going to have good health from that front going forward in terms of my hand. You’re never out of woods – I’m 41, I get it. Anything can pop up here. But because this is such a systemic injury for me, having this thumb problem be lasting for really three years now, this is the first time I’m kind of getting out of it. That’s the good.”
It was reflected in the way both he and Kershaw showed their mettle in escaping early jams that could have changed the game.
Ohtani and Betts opened the first inning with singles and after Freeman struck out, Smith drove a ball that Davis Schneider snared by the left-field wall. Max Muncy then walked to load the bases, but Scherzer rallied to strike out Hernandez.
In the second, after Barger’s base RBI single, base hits by Ty France and Daulton Varsho loaded the bases, but Betts made a diving stab on Myles Straw’s liner to short and easily doubled off France.
“It’s a good play by Mookie and a good at-bat for Myles,” said manager John Schneider. “And if it’s a foot to the to the left there, it’s one, maybe two. Those are the ones you want to be a little bit careful on. Groundball double plays happen and Kershaw did a good job with the slider to keep us a little bit off balance and pitch to some weak contact. So you’ve got to take advantage in spots that you have chances.”
Easier said than done, as all these years later, Scherzer’s power and Kershaw’s finesse remain a study in contrasts, even if in approach and mindset they remain similar.
Dodgers manager David Roberts, who had the duo together in 2021 when Scherzer was acquired at the trade deadline, described them as “baseball players, first,” who “see the game a lot better and differently than most people.”
“In another life, they both could have been position players,” he continued. “Uber-competitive. They’re both intense, but I think that Max is a little bit more demonstrative in the ‘pen, in the game with the intensity, with his coaches and teammates.
“I recall not even being able to pat him on the backside in the middle of a game. That’s pretty intense. Clayton is intense, but it’s just not as like out there as Max.”
Kershaw last faced the Blue Jays on Aug. 20, 2019, a 16-3 rout memorable more for Bichette’s performance against the lefty. Then just 21, Bichette homered in his first at-bat, was buckled by a curveball while striking out in his second before taking the lefty deep again in his third trip.
Bichette called that day “one of the coolest moments of my career,” recalling how he leaned on some childhood advice from his father Dante.
“One of the things that sticks with me the most is he always told me you’re facing the ball and not the pitcher,” said Bichette. “That day was probably the first time I was facing that big of a name in my career, so literally from the moment I woke up, that’s all I was telling myself, is that I was facing the ball and not the pitcher. And I was just able to go in there and take that into the game and I learned everybody is human.”
This time around, Bichette doubled and scored in the second before grounding out in the third and hitting into a double play in the sixth. The Blue Jays did manage seven hits and a walk against him, but couldn’t find a path to damage.
“I love competing against him,” said Scherzer. “You knew there weren’t going to be many runs scored and you’ve got to be absolutely nails, go out there and compete as hard as you can. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get to him as much as we would like to, but he pitched his butt off.”
As did Scherzer, just like they both did in that first encounter 17 years ago. That one also was a Dodgers win, 5-3 over Arizona, neither figuring in the decision.
“It’s kind of a cool little milestone moment here where we’re hooking it up back up against each other, squaring off again,” said Scherzer. “He’s had such a great career. Getting to be a teammate with him, he’s an awesome teammate as well. I’ve got all the respect in the world for what he does on and off the field.”
That’s a respect that goes both ways, earned by two pitchers who quite possibly may be the last of their kind.
