Confidence To The Max: Scherzer Locked In As Tigers Charge Toward Playoffs
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
COMERICA PARK (CBS DETROIT) - Max Scherzer always keeps the end game in mind.
Even as the Detroit Tigers ace delivered a stellar outing Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals, pitching out of a two-on, no-out jam in the second inning and escaping a bases-loaded, one-out conundrum in the fifth, Scherzer minded his limits.
He had downed two batters in the seventh inning when manager Brad Ausmus came out and talked to him. For many pitchers, pitch counts start to go out the window in September as teams push to get into the playoffs. Scherzer knew, however, that this was not the day for him to push.
"He wondered if I wanted another batter," Scherzer said. "I said no. It just wasn't smart ... The previous start was extremely taxing. It was the most physically demanding start of the year, in Cleveland, and so you have to be careful. You can't got out there and do that again. That's the recipe for injury. And so I realized where my pitch count was at, I knew I really kind of had gone a little bit past where I wanted to go, and I knew this was not a 120 start, and so he asked if I had another batter. I said no."
Scherzer had hurled 124 pitches in his previous start, in which he held the Indians to two earned runs over six innings. That outing brought Scherzer's season total to 193 2/3 innings, and Tuesday's outing of 6 2/3 innings puts him over 200 total for the 2014 season.
With five days of rest before his next start, however, since the Tigers have a day off Thursday, Scherzer said that because he exercised some restraint Tuesday after his demanding start Thursday, he can pitch all-out going forward.
"I've been halfway guarded throughout the whole year because I know in September you want to be able to do this," Scherzer said. "Now I'll be able to get a chance to breathe and freshen up. I'll be good for 120 for the rest of the season. I'm ready to go. Now that I'm able to get through this start ... I will be able to give you absolutely everything I've got for the next three starts."
Scherzer has never lacked for confidence - not as he stormed through a breakout season in 2013, not as he weathered criticism for essentially betting on his future success by turning down a massive contract offer by the Tigers in the offseason, and certainly not now, with the tables turned on Detroit in recent weeks as the Royals took the lead in the division.
Scherzer scoffed at the notion of the Tigers being the ones under pressure when the Royals came to Detroit for this series with a two-game lead in the central division.
"I even heard it today, 'Oh, the Tigers feel pressure,'" Scherzer said, his tone defiant, challenging. "I said, 'Well, they're going to feel pressure when I throw strike one. I'm going to go out there and throw strike one and they're going to feel the pressure."
Scherzer believes in his ability but speaks even more emphatically of the team's potential. He has done so all season, not wavering when the Tigers have encountered rough patches and when the Royals got hotter than any team in baseball in the second half.
"We have the talent in this clubhouse to get it done," Scherzer said. "We can play with anybody in baseball, and we can beat anybody in baseball if we go out there and play our A-game. Tonight, I thought we played our A-game, and like I said, we can beat anybody."
Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler teamed with closer Joe Nathan for the Tuesday's game's signature play, a pickoff in the ninth, and as invigorating as the win was for the team, Detroit still has its eyes forward, just like Scherzer.
"There's still a lot of games left to be played," Kinsler said. "We still have another series against [the Royals]. We still have a series against Cleveland, maybe two, I'm not sure. So there's a lot of things that can happen. Right now we kind of control our own destiny.
"We play good ball from here on out," Kinsler added, "good things should happen."