Max Scherzer looked more like his usual self but the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t get the bats going, resulting in a 1-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
After struggling over his final two starts of the regular season and not being at his sharpest in the Wild Card Game, Scherzer largely was able to keep the Giants lineup in check, allowing only one run on three hits across seven strong innings.
The right-hander’s lone blemish on the night was a leadoff home run surrendered to Evan Longoria in the top of the fifth inning. The veteran third baseman jumped on a 96 mph fastball that caught too much of the plate and sent it an estimated 407 feet into the left-field pavilion.
“Still haven’t seen it, so I need to figure out where — I was trying to go fastball up, trying to get above the zone, probably didn’t get above the zone,” Scherzer explained of the 0-2 pitch.
“But it is what it is. You got to figure out why you didn’t execute that pitch and then turn the page and move on. It sucks.”
Prior to Longoria’s solo shot, Scherzer at one point had retired 10 batters in a row. He ultimately finished his outing with 10 strikeouts, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to reach the threshold in a postseason game for three different teams.
The future Hall of Famer was encouraged by the previous mechanical adjustments he made, though conceded the unusually strong wind at Dodger Stadium had an effect on him. “Yeah. Like I said, I made a lower-half adjustment and that synced up my upper half,” Scherzer began.
“When I was able to get through the first inning, I didn’t realize how much the wind was going to affect me. The wind was really pushing me towards home plate and it was pretty strong.
“Then once I was able to get through the second inning, that’s when I really felt like I found some rhythm and was able to start executing pitches. From that point forward, able to execute with five pitches.
“I feel like that’s what made for a good outing. But you get to the postseason you can always lose by one pitch. That comes into play. Tonight I lost it on one pitch.”
Roberts: Wind was ‘huge’ factor in Dodgers’ loss
While Longoria’s blast had enough juice to clear the left-center field wall, Chris Taylor and Gavin Lux each had potential home runs taken away from them by the strong gusts. “It was huge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the wind’s factor in Game 3 of the NLDS.
“Those two balls right there, it would’ve been a different outcome. But those are the elements both teams had to play with. That’s baseball.”
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