Max Scherzer near perfect in rehab start with Bisons

Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Baseball fans in Buffalo got a real treat on Wednesday, as they saw a future Hall-of-Famer on the mound for the Bisons.

Max Scherzer was on a rehab start from the Toronto Blue Jays for a thumb injury. He pitched five innings, and gave up no runs, no hits and no walks. One man did manage to reach base on an error.

In his third rehab start with the Bisons, Scherzer threw 56 pitches, 40 of which were strikes. He says he was only slated to go four innings, but with so few pitches, he took a fifth.

"I was only at 45 pitches after four, so that was the reason I went out there for the fifth," Scherzer said after the start. "The velo was holding in the third and fourth inning, so that's what gave me the runway to go out for the fifth."

Scherzer was throwing between 93 and 95 mph all afternoon.

Of course Scherzer is going to pitch differently in a AAA rehab start than in a big league game.

"For me, you're just looking at the process of executing pitches. It's been two weeks, so to be able to get back into the zone and navigate a lineup and execute pitches, that's the good," Scherzer said.

It's not only pitching well, it's how does the player feel the next day. Scherzer isn't worried about that.

"I have a pretty good feel that I'm going to recover pretty good from this one," he said. "This wasn't a taxing outing, the arm felt great, the body felt great, thumb felt great. So I have a pretty good feel I'll recover from this one."

Once he got past expectations of four innings and 65 pitches, Scherzer turned his attention to other things.

"For me, I was looking at pitches after 45, was I still holding velo? Was I executing? How did my body feel after pitch 50-to-55? So I was trying to check those boxes and tried to evaluate myself," he self analyzed.

Scherzer doesn't have Willie MacIver as his catcher all that often, but he credited the 29-year-old with helping him through this outing.

"Throwing to MacIver today was really good," Scherzer said. "We had a good game plan coming in on what we wanted to do, how we wanted to execute certain pitches. And we just did a good job of working together, and I enjoy throwing to him. We had fun back there today."

By going five innings, Scherzer got the win, 9-2, over the Rochester Red Wings. Overall, he's 1-2 with Buffalo with a 4.02 ERA.

Davis Schneider hit his fifth home run of the season to propel the Bisons.

Jay Harry went 1-for-3 with a two-run double and three RBI.

Buffalo has won two-out-of-three games and three of its last five. The Bisons and Rochester are both 12-11 in the second half of the season.

This has not been a great season so far for the Jays, but Scherzer says he definitely is not a savior.

"I've just got to worry about myself. I've got to worry about my health, and going out there and being the best I can," Scherzer said. "I can't make the team win. I can only go out there and compete and do my job, and put the team in position to win. So as depressing as it is the way we're playing, and you want to go out and do everything you can to help the team, if my number gets called, I want to go out there and compete and help the team win."

With injuries this season, Scherzer has only pitched six times for the Blue Jays, going 1-4 with a 10.23 ERA. He's only pitched once since April 24, and that was June 10 against the Philadelphia Phillies. He went 3.1 innings, giving up five earned runs on five hits, walking three and striking out four.