Los Angeles Dodgers Max Scherzer may soon be closing in on breaking another record in his career.
Scherzer was at the top of his game on Wednesday during his outing against a familiar foe: the Atlanta Braves. In the sixth start of his Dodgers career, the veteran pitcher recorded six scoreless innings to go along with nine strikeouts and zero bases on balls allowed.
With a four-seam fastball that often hit the radar gun in the mid-90s coupled with a slider that had formidable late movement, Scherzer managed to record 20 swings and misses against the NL East leaders. This is quite impressive as he came into the game dealing with back tightness.
More so, this was the 36th career game of Scherzer’s career where he recorded at least nine strikeouts and zero walks, which tied him with Dodgers teammate Clayton Kershaw for the second-most such games in AL/NL history. Longtime starting pitcher Randy Johnson is the all-time leader in this stat with 41 such games.
Max Scherzer has 36 games with 9+ Ks and 0 BB.
That's tied for the 2nd-most in AL/NL history with Clayton Kershaw.
He only trails Randy Johnson, who had 41. pic.twitter.com/gS3lBq7KOd
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) September 2, 2021
Just this season alone, Scherzer has recorded three games with at least nine strikeouts and no walks allowed.
Overall, Scherzer is off to a promising start to his Dodgers career. The Dodgers are 6-0 in games that Scherzer has started in with the team. Over these games, he has posted a 1.29 ERA, 50 strikeouts recorded over 35.0 innings pitched and a keen .172 batting average allowed.
Scherzer’s showing against the Braves may have been the most potent one yet of his run with the Dodgers, although it was overshadowed by manager Dave Roberts’ decision to pull him after a mere six innings recorded.
Even as the three-time Cy Young Award winner is well now on the backend of his prime, he is still performing as one of the more efficient pitchers in the National League.
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