Dodgers: Max Scherzer Reacts to 3,000th Strikeout and Career Longevity
What. A. Performance. As has been stated time and time again since he came to LA, the Dodgers have got more than they could have asked for out of Max Scherzer. In 8 starts in blue, the three-time Cy Young award winner has allowed just 5 runs over 51 dominant innings.
On Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, Mad Max recorded the 3,000th strikeout of his Hall of Fame career while carrying a perfect game into the 8th inning. In the era of openers and bullpen games, Max Scherzer is a refreshing bit of old school baseball. He’s also a reminder of a time when starters tossed more than 5 or 6 innings before calling it a day.
On Sunday, Max Scherzer became the 19th pitcher in baseball history to record 3,000 Ks and, as Bill Plunkett of the OC Register noted, only the seventh pitcher to do so while also having three Cy Young awards under his belt. Max spoke on the accomplishment after the game.
It’s hard to describe the emotions of it. It’s an awesome achievement — awesome milestone. Not that many people have reached this milestone. It’s an awesome thing to accomplish. I love strikeouts and to me this is a testament to durability to me going out there every single time, making my 30-plus starts a year, year in, year out. Everybody can have the ability to do this. But few have the durability to do this.
Dodgers fans can speak to the idea of durability. For 14 years we’ve been blessed to watch the historic career of Clayton Kershaw. For 7 of the last 8 years, we’ve seen him sidelined with injuries that have not quite derailed his future Hall of Fame career, but they’ve definitely put a dent in the stats. Kershaw sits just 349 Ks behind Scherzer (who is 4 years his senior) and 347 Ks away from number 3,000.
There’s something to the durability and dominance of Max Scherzer. And thankfully Dodger fans get to watch him still at his peak while in blue, and now as the 19th member of the 3,000 K club.
In 8 starts with the Dodgers, Scherzer is 6-0 with a 0.88 ERA in 51 innings.
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Max Scherzer is a boss!
Whether Friedham went by ‘hunch, old stats from Strat-o-Matic cards, computer algorithms, or was just lucky, acquiring both Scherzer and Pujols, 2 future Hall of Famers, was a bit of ‘right time, and even righter $, the 2 plus Price..elders of the game have given and done what was not in their contracts. They have set an example to the younger studs of the club, not only how to play, how to survive, and how to still be able to compete at the highest level. This and what they give to the fans, a chance to see guys from ‘the old school’, the ones w/o the gold chains, could not have been foreseen. This team would be no better than the D-Backs or the Rockies w/o Scherzer, and Tio Albert, is a living legend.
Give him an extention. Now. Before the price goes up even further.
They will, somehow.