TORONTO -- Only one man can tell Max Scherzer when it’s over, and his name is Max Scherzer.
Every bit of Scherzer’s brilliance was on display on Sunday afternoon in what may have been his last start in the big leagues. After what we just saw, though, how could it be? How could Scherzer, one of greatest competitors this game has ever seen, put on a performance like that and not be tempted back? He’s still got it.
None of those pesky details seemed to matter as Scherzer, pitching on short rest at 42 years old, gave the Blue Jays seven-plus innings of one-run ball in Sunday's 5-1 win, striking out seven. He fell just three strikeouts shy of tying Justin Verlander for eighth on MLB’s all-time strikeout list, but perhaps that’s something to knock off in his first start of 2027. With 114 pitches, he’s the oldest Blue Jays pitcher to throw more than 100 since pitch counts began tracking in 1988.
“I felt like I was unlimited,” Scherzer said.
Scherzer has built a career on being not only remarkably talented, but supremely stubborn. Barking a manager off the mound is a lost art, but Scherzer is one of the game’s last great artists. He got to send John Schneider back to the dugout one last time, too.
When Schneider first came out of the dugout, brave and with a bounce in his step, Scherzer was at 104 pitches over 6 2/3 innings. This is a jog Schneider knows well. In Schneider’s office, there’s a photo of that famous scene in Game 4 of the 2025 ALCS in Seattle, when Scherzer convinced Schneider to keep him in the game. Scherzer has signed it for Schneider, inscribed with part of what he’d barked at his manager.
This time the home crowd booed Schneider the moment they saw him climb those dugout steps, growing angrier the closer he got to Scherzer. The veteran right-hander was a little calmer this time, but he sent Schneider right back where he came from. Walking off the field one batter later, Scherzer gave Schneider a shake of the head. Schneider couldn’t stop smiling. His face made the Reds’ caps look like a pale pink. It wasn’t time yet, and Schneider obliged.
“I’d told him before the game that I wanted to take him out in the middle of an inning so he could be recognized,” said Schneider. “The first one, I asked him how he felt and he said, ‘Great.’ I told him that if I gave him another batter and he gets him, he’d have to go back out. He said, ‘I know, and that’s what I’m doing.’ I thought, okey dokey, and I turned around.”
Schneider gave Scherzer one more batter to open the eighth, then made the long walk. This time Scherzer smiled, but he held onto the baseball just a little longer as he talked to his manager. Then, after slamming it into his glove one last time, Scherzer wrapped his arms around Schneider.
“I told Max on the mound when he was coming out, ‘Thank you for letting me be part of your unbelievable career,’” Schneider said, “’and I wouldn’t want any other 42-year-old psychopath on my team other than you.’”
Scherzer left to the loudest ovation of the night, then went down the dugout, hugging everyone he could find. Star players, rookies, interpreters, training staff, they all got a bear hug. At the other end of the dugout, Scherzer’s wife, Erica, was waiting with their kids. He climbed over the wall to get to them, the cameras still on him, the stadium still roaring around him.
“Being a Blue Jay here, it’s been great,” Scherzer said. “I had so much fun. I tell everybody across the league how much this is a hidden gem, playing for the Blue Jays. You don’t know until you experience it.”
This was a performance for baseball fans. It doesn’t matter which uniform you wear or which team you cheer for, moments like these from Scherzer are why we watch.
“I hope our young pitchers watched, because of a couple things,” said Reds manager Terry Francona. “One, I think he threw 21 first-pitch strikes, which is phenomenal. On a different note … He’s got a lot of innings under his belt. He’s coming back on short rest and did what he did. I think that shows the competitor he is. I wish we’d have won. But it’s hard not to tip your hat or clap, because he’s been so much of what’s good in baseball, and you’ve got to respect that.”
If this is it, we’ll always talk about Sunday, Sept. 27, at Rogers Centre. At the end of a season so many are eager to forget, Scherzer insisted that this day be worth remembering.