Six and a half seasons, a Cy Young or two, and a 2019 World Series ring — that's what Max Scherzer built in Washington before he ever left. So when he took the mound at Nationals Park on Monday night wearing Toronto blue instead of Nats red, it was never going to be just another road start.
Scherzer back on the Nationals Park mound for the first time as a visitor, with fans already filming the moment.
The timing made it even weirder. Scherzer turned 42 on the exact day of this start, and he hadn't pitched in the majors since June 10 before Monday — back spasms shelved him, then a cortisone shot in his throwing thumb delayed the comeback further. He'd been grinding through rehab starts in Buffalo just to get back to a big league mound, and he picked Washington to do it.
The outing itself was shaky. Blue Jays reliever/hitter Urías tied the game with a 416-foot bomb to dead center in the top of the 3rd, part of a stretch where DC's lineup made him work.
Urías' homer knotted the score at 1-1 in the third inning of Scherzer's return.
None of that mattered much once Scherzer got pulled after 75 pitches with Toronto up 2-1. He walked toward the dugout looking down, and the same fans who used to chant his name during his Cy Young runs stood up and applauded anyway. He tipped his cap on the way out.
Scherzer exits to a standing ovation from the Nationals Park crowd he used to pitch in front of every fifth day.
That ovation carried extra weight because it might be the last one. Scherzer signed back with Toronto on a one-year, $3 million deal this spring hoping for a bounce-back, but a 10.23 ERA across six starts and a string of injuries have made him a name in trade-deadline chatter as a buy-low reclamation project — assuming he waives his no-trade clause to go anywhere. At 42, with his body clearly fighting him, there's a real chance Monday was the last time DC gets to send him off.
Whatever happens the rest of this season, Nationals fans got their moment. Scherzer gave that fanbase three All-Star seasons, a franchise-altering ace stretch, and the signature performance of the only World Series title in team history. A standing ovation for a guy allowing runs to your own team is a strange thing to witness — but for Scherzer in Washington, it never needed to make sense.