Part of the confidence surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers staving off elimination in the National League Championship Series was having Max Scherzer lined up to start Game 6, followed by Walker Buehler taking the mound in a potential winner-take-all scenario at Truist Park.
The outing on Saturday was due to be Scherzer’s second start of the NLCS and come on an extra day of rest. He went just 4.1 innings in Game 2 and was removed due to experiencing dead arm as a result of fatigue from converting a save against the San Francisco Giants.
Scherzer expressed confidence he would make a full recovery in time for Game 6. However, that opportunity does not appear to be coming.
According to Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times, Scherzer has been scratched from his start due to undisclosed reasons:
The team touched down at around 8:15 p.m. EDT and canceled the session minutes later because Scherzer isn’t going to start Saturday after all, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
Scherzer was initially due to speak with media via Zoom prior to the Dodgers’ flight to Atlanta, but only manager Dave Roberts held a session.
With Scherzer out of the equation, the Dodgers are looking at the prospect of another bullpen game. David Price — who is going to be added to the NLCS roster as a replacement for Joe Kelly — could potentially be an option to provide some length. Tony Gonsolin may be a similar candidate.
Injuries have become a theme for the Dodgers in the NLCS, as Justin Turner was lost for the rest of the postseason because of a Grade 2 hamstring strain, Kelly is expected to be formally removed Saturday, and Justin Bruihl might be in the same position because of arm soreness.
Scherzer fighting uphill battle
Although Scherzer had prior experience pitching on just two days’ rest as he did in Game 2 of the NLCS, it has placed him and the Dodgers firmly behind the 8 ball.
“I would just say my arm was dead. I could tell when I was warming up that it was still tired. And I’ve been in this situation before,” he said after the Dodgers’ second consecutive walk-off loss.
“Usually in those situations kind of once you get past pitch 45, sometimes it kind of loosens up and you’re able to get deeper into a game. But after that third inning it didn’t loosen up. It was still more tightening up. So I could tell that my pitch count was going to be limited. I wasn’t going to be able to get truly deep into a game and I wasn’t going to be able to get to that 95-, 100-pitch count. I knew it was going to be sooner than that.
“After the fourth inning I was like, ‘Hey, if this is a long inning, you’re going to have to pull me, but if it’s a quick inning I can go back out there.’ And that’s when we looked at the lineup and said, all right, I got Swanson, the pinch-hitter, and then at that point I knew I wasn’t going to be better than Vesia.”
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