In his third start for the Texas Rangers, Max Scherzer joined history only shared by Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Justin Verlander. In Monday's contest against the Los Angeles Angels, Scherzer threw seven innings, allowing just one hit and striking out 11. His six career games with 10+ strikeouts and one or zero hits allowed are the fourth-most since the mound was set to its current distance in 1893, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Scherzer's former teammate on the recently-imploded New York Mets, Justin Verlander, has thrown eight such starts. Randy Johnson had 10, and Nolan Ryan achieved this feat a ridiculous 19 times.

The Rangers traded for Max Scherzer at the MLB trade deadline two weeks ago to try and stay ahead of the Houston Astros for the AL West title. It has paid off well so far. In Scherzer's three starts with the Rangers, he is 3-0 in 20 IP, allowing just 11 hits, five walks and four earned runs in that span, striking out 26 along the way.

That's the elite production the Mets were expecting to get out of Scherzer. If he keeps this up, the Rangers have a Hall of Fame caliber ace in the rotation as the home stretch of the season approaches. Unfortunately, they are still obviously without Jacob deGrom, but next season, Scherzer and deGrom could be a nasty 1-2 punch.

The Astros haven't been easy to pull away from in the AL West race, however, so Scherzer's dominant pitching is coming at a clutch time for the Rangers. While the Rangers are 11-2 since the trade deadline, the Astros have also won nine of their last 14. Texas holds a 3.5 game lead on the division as of Monday.

Scherzer is 39 and still dealing at a high level. He's a career 8x All-Star and 3x Cy Young Award winner. He threw two no-hitters in 2015, one of which should have been a perfect game. He shares MLB records for most strikeouts in a game (20, Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood) and most immaculate innings (3, Sandy Koufax and Chris Sale).