Scherzer landed on the 15-day IL on April 27, retroactive to April 25, because of right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation. 44 days later, the future Hall-of-Fame hurler was officially back and active again, only to be met by continued struggles that have followed him since his second start of 2026.
“Physically, it felt good, definitely way better than it was in the beginning part of the year,” Scherzer said following his club’s 7-4 loss to the Phillies. “They’re a great lineup. I’ve faced them many times over my career. They grind me. They put together some tough ABs, fouled a lot of pitches.
“So definitely tip my cap to them for grinding me down.”
It was yet another abbreviated outing from Mad Max, this time due to performance rather than injury, as Phillies hitters tagged him for five runs (all earned) on as many hits, which included a pair of home runs from Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm, along with a trio of walks over 3.1 innings. On top of making a few mistakes over the heart of the plate, the 41-year-old’s other issue was his command, throwing only 51 of his 82 pitches for strikes — a 62.2 per cent strike rate.
This game also marked the fourth time in Scherzer’s six starts this season that he’s failed to complete at least four innings. The fall from his remarkable ’26 season debut — a six-inning gem versus the Colorado Rockies that featured just one run and walk allowed each, with a season-high four strikeouts — has been massive for the frustrated veteran right-hander.
“I came here to win today. I’m not pitching for milestones, I’m pitching to win and win the whole thing,” Scherzer said.
STRIKEOUT NUMBER 3,500 FOR MAX SCHERZER!!!
🎥 Sportsnet | #Bluejays
Coming off another tough result, though, Scherzer’s planning to wait a few days before celebrating his latest milestone.
“We’re gonna celebrate that on Friday,” he added. “Every time I feel like I’ve been in one of these milestone games or something like that, I’ve always won. So you’re always kind of able to enjoy it in the moment. This one’s different, doing it in a loss.”
One pitch into Harper’s first at-bat, the Blue Jays found themselves trailing 1-0, as the fellow future Cooperstown inductee punished a middle-middle four-seamer that bounced twice off the top of the left-field wall before landing in Toronto’s bullpen. Scherzer walked the next batter before inducing an inning-ending groundout.
In the top of the second, Scherzer had to work hard for the first two outs, throwing six pitches each to retire Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto. The next batter, Adolis García, then walked on five pitches — forcing the Blue Jays starter’s pitch count to climb even further. He then needed another six pitches to induce an inning-ending flyout from Justin Crawford.
Through the first two innings, Scherzer’s pitch count read 48. The writing was already on the wall here.
Following consecutive singles from Schwarber and Turner to begin the third, Philadelphia’s offence was in business against Scherzer, who induced back-to-back outs before surrendering a deflating, three-run shot to Alec Bohm. The inning ended following his third walk of the night and a groundout from J.T. Realmuto, but it was clear the bullpen was preparing for another hefty workload.
Once Scherzer gave up a one-out single to Crawford, it marked the end of his return, preventing him from facing Schwarber — who ended up homering off Mason Fluharty anyway — for a third time.
All told, six relievers had to cover the remainder of this latest defeat, including many of the ‘pen’s high-leverage arms (Mason Fluharty, Jeff Hoffman, Braydon Fisher and Tyler Rogers). Not ideal, of course, though that’s the beauty of having Cease twirl six frames the night before and Thursday’s off-day ahead.
This isn’t a sustainable formula, though. Moving forward, the Blue Jays will need Scherzer to offer more length as he reacclimates to a regular starter’s workload again. Since that’s something he’s had to press pause on for almost two months, they’re hoping to let this breathe a bit more before making a meaningful assessment.
“You want to try to see what it looks like when he gets some consistent work and kind of evaluate it then,” manager John Schneider said. “I think he’s earned that. I think it’s the reason why we signed him back, and you don’t want to make any knee-jerk reactions after having a month-plus off.”
While the club is delaying any knee-jerk reactions for now, you can’t ignore Scherzer’s updated 10.23 ERA and 8.78 FIP through six starts — and only 22 innings — in his second season with the franchise.
But that patience may begin to waver if the results don’t improve soon.
It shouldn’t be long until Shane Bieber completes his rehab assignment, which continues Thursday with another Triple-A start — an outing that’ll be caught by fellow rehabber Alejandro Kirk. And with the Blue Jays starting a 16-game stretch without an off-day next week that’ll run through the end of June, the time for another tough decision could follow.