WASHINGTON -- Max Scherzer’s second return from an IL stint this season went better than his first, if only marginally.
Scherzer labored through 2 2/3 innings on 75 pitches on his 42nd birthday, but he escaped by allowing only one run in his former home park in the Blue Jays’ 3-2 win over the Nationals in Monday night’s series opener.
In the three-time Cy Young Award winner’s first outing since June 10, he struck out four to move within eight of Walter Johnson (3,515) for 10th all-time on MLB’s all-time strikeout list. Scherzer also walked three and allowed four hits.
In the process, he lowered his ERA by about three-quarters of a run, to 9.49, in his seventh start this season and first since he landed back on the IL with a combination of back spasms and right thumb inflammation. He has retired more than 10 batters in only two of those outings, both of those coming before his first injury setback due to right forearm tightness and left ankle inflammation.
In Scherzer’s previous return from the IL on June 10, he allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings before landing back on the IL.
Barring any other setbacks, Scherzer might have one more outing before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline to convince possible trade suitors he’s healthy enough for a low-risk flyer.
Luis Urías homered, Ernie Clement hit an RBI double and Myles Straw singled in a run for Toronto. Mason Fluharty and Spencer Miles each worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, Tyler Rogers and Jeff Hoffman pitched one scoreless frame each and Louis Varland stranded a pair of runners in the ninth for his 22nd save.
Scherzer received a standing ovation of roughly 30 seconds when he first took the mound at Nationals Park, the venue he called home from 2015-21.
He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, striking out Dylan Crews before inducing Daylen Lile into a groundout. After Scherzer allowed Luis García Jr.’s RBI double in the second inning, he stranded two more Nationals by fielding José Tena’s chopper himself.
He departed with one aboard in the third to another appreciative applause from the crowd as he walked off after a 12-pitch strikeout of Lile.