Blue Jays' Max Scherzer gets second
World Series Game 7 start after Dodgers force winner-take-all
[November 01, 2025]
By RONALD BLUM
TORONTO (AP) — Max Scherzer is about to become the only living
pitcher to start two winner-take-all Game 7s in the World Series.
Baseball will have its ultimate finale Saturday night when Scherzer
and the Toronto Blue Jays play the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are
trying to become the first team to win consecutive titles since the
1998-2000 New York Yankees won three in row.
Los Angeles had been expected to start Tyler Glasnow before he
closed out a 3-1 victory in Game 6. The 6-foot-8 right-hander is
likely still available, but manager Dave Roberts could also start
Shohei Ohtani for two-to-four innings on three days' rest — which
the two-way star has not done since coming to Major League Baseball
in 2018.
“They are all possibilities,” Roberts said. “This is Game 7, so
there’s a lot of things that people haven’t done.”
Scherzer also started the last World Series Game 7 in 2019, boosted
by a cortisone injection for an irritated nerve near his neck. Mad
Max didn't have a clean inning and left after five trailing by two
runs before his Washington Nationals rallied to win 6-2 in Houston.
Only Bob Gibson (1964, ‘67, ’68) and Lew Burdette and Don Larsen
(both 1957 and ‘58) have started multiple winner-take-all Game 7s in
the World Series. Burleigh Grimes started Game 7 in 1920 and ’31,
but his first was in a year the Series was best-of-nine.
Toronto gave Scherzer, 41, a $15.5 million, one-year contract. The
three-time Cy Young Award winner picked his destination hoping to
win a third World Series ring, after titles with Washington in 2019
and Texas in 2023. The 18-year big league veteran has eagerly shared
his experience with the Blue Jays.
“He’s not afraid to question baserunning, question defense, question
offense. He still thinks he’s our best baserunner on the team from
his days with the Nationals,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said
Friday. “He’s not afraid to push the envelope. He’s not afraid to be
curious. He’s not afraid to share things that he’s been through that
maybe I haven’t been through.”
“There’s a lot of teams that don’t like Max Scherzers just because
he questions everything," teammate Chris Bassitt added. "He wants to
know every little detail, from outfield positioning to why you’re
throwing this pitch to who is playing here to how we control off
days.
"So many organizations, I feel like, don’t like to answer questions.
They like you to be a robot and say, yes sir, and go about your
business.”
Scherzer went 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts this season. The
eight-time All-Star didn’t pitch between March 29 and June 25
because of right thumb inflammation, then was left off Toronto’s
roster for the first round of the playoffs after he went 0-3 in his
last five starts, bothered by neck pain.
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Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer leaves the game during the
fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series against the Los
Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP
Photo/Ashley Landis)
He turned back the clock during the American League
Championship Series, winning Game 4 against Seattle after shouting
down Schneider during a mound visit.
“No better guy to have on the mound to kind of navigate the
emotions, the stuff,” Schneider said. “Max has been getting ready
for Game 7 when he knew he was pitching Game 3.”
Bassitt was asked by Toronto to assist in recruiting Scherzer, a
teammate on the 2022 New York Mets, and praised general manager Ross
Atkins for making the move.
“I told Ross: This was going to be a headache for you, having Max
Scherzer. And then I told the pitching staff about him, and I told
the coaching staff, like: This is a guy that’s going to stir a lot
of pots," Bassitt said. “So everyone looked at Max, the 41-year-old
that might end up on the IL a couple times, and they don’t
understand the true value of having that veteran guy that knows what
it takes to win, and then he might teach you a thing or two along
the way, too.”
Glasnow got three outs on three pitches to save Game 6. After Roki
Sasaki was removed with runners at second and third with no outs in
the ninth, Glasnow popped up Ernie Clement on his first pitch, then
Andrés Giménez hit a liner to left fielder Kiké Hernández, who
caught it and doubled off Addison Barger at second base.
Glasnow, acquired from Tampa Bay in December 2023, was sidelined
between April 27 and July 9 by right shoulder inflammation. The
32-year-old right-hander has a 1.42 ERA in three starts and two
relief outings this postseason.
Toronto will be playing a World Series Game 7 for the first time —
the Blue Jays won their only championships in six games in both 1992
and ’93.
The LA Dodgers won their only Series Game 7 at Minnesota in 1965
when Sandy Koufax pitched a three-hit shutout on two days' rest
after his four-hit shutout won Game 5. They lost Game 7 at home to
Houston in 2017. Going back, the Brooklyn Dodgers lost Game 7 to the
Yankees in 1947, ‘52 and ’56, and beat the Yankees in Game 7 in
1955.
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