Max Scherzer does not hide his emotions well. That is generally a feature, not a bug. On Tuesday against the Rays, it turned into one of the most awkward moments of the Toronto Blue Jays season.
Scherzer was on the mound in the bottom of the fourth inning with the bases loaded and one out in a 1-0 game. He induced a weak fly ball to shallow left field off the bat of Yandy Diaz that should have ended the inning with maybe one run coming home. Instead, Blue Jays left fielder Jesus Sanchez completely misplayed it, overran the ball, and let it bounce past him for a two-run single. Two runs scored and the Rays took a 3-1 lead.
Sanchez then compounded the mistake in the next at-bat, taking a poor route on another catchable ball. Three more runs came home. The Blue Jays never recovered from the inning and lost 7-6.
Scherzer picked up the baseball after the play and threw a glare at Sanchez that was captured by every camera in the ballpark. He did not say a word. He did not need to. His body language walking off the field at the end of the inning told the entire story.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider tried to smooth it over after the game. Schneider called the plays “weird” and defended Sanchez, saying the sun was tough and the routes are harder in that left field spot than people think. Sanchez himself owned the mistakes in a brief clubhouse interview.
None of it made anyone feel better. Sanchez is playing left field because Toronto’s outfield has been a mess all season. He was acquired from Miami in a smaller deadline deal to add a lefty bat, not to play premium defense. That is not a great fit when your ace is on the mound and every out matters.
Scherzer has been up and down all year. He is 41 years old, in the last year of his contract, and dealing with a fastball that no longer touches 96. His command has kept him afloat, but nights like Tuesday show how thin the margin is when the defense fails him. The two Sanchez misplays cost him a shot at a decent line, and now he wears a loss he should not have taken.
The bigger question is what this does to the clubhouse. The Blue Jays have been the story of the summer for the wrong reasons. Sub-.500 baseball, sniping about leadership, questions about Schneider’s future. A moment where the veteran ace visibly loses his cool at a teammate is exactly what a fragile group does not need.
Toronto is still in the wild card conversation only because the American League is a mess. They have not been eliminated. But every night that includes visible dysfunction makes it harder to believe they can string together the run they need in September.
Scherzer will pitch again in five days. Sanchez will probably be back in left field within a week. Both of them have to move past Tuesday if the Blue Jays are going to salvage anything.
The look, though, is going to live on the internet forever.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
