by Rowan Kavner
Major League Baseball’s largest crowd of the season wasn’t ready to stop cheering Max Scherzer when he walked off the mound following his 10th strikeout of his Dodger debut. The 52,724 fans at Dodger Stadium, already hyped with the Astros in town, giddily watched the prized deadline acquisition meticulously pick apart one of baseball’s most dangerous lineups.
As Scherzer handed out high-fives to his newest teammates after retreating to the home dugout following his 109th pitch Wednesday night — a 96 mph fastball that blew by pinch-hitter Chas McCormick to end the seventh inning — the DodgerVision boards stayed glued to the three-time Cy Young Award winner. The fans remained on their feet, almost beckoning Scherzer to emerge from the dugout. He obliged after a nudge from another three-time Cy Young Award winner.
“(Clayton) Kershaw said, ‘Hey, give them what they want,’” said Scherzer, who sprinted up the steps for a curtain call. “At that point, the crowd was going nuts. I wanted to go out there and give a tip of my hat, appreciate what they did. They brought unbelievable energy tonight. That’s just fun to pitch in front of. You live for this.”
Scherzer helped energize a raucous crowd that cathartically released its pent-up feelings in a 7–5 win against Houston, which was playing its first series in front of a full Dodger Stadium since the 2017 sign-stealing scandal was revealed. Dodger fans had waited restlessly for the chance to make themselves heard, which they did the moment the two-game series began Tuesday. But a 3–0 loss to start the series provided few reasons to ignite for the performance they watched.
Scherzer, who struck out Jose Altuve to start the game, and Mookie Betts, who homered to lead off the game, changed the vibes quickly Wednesday evening.
Betts has homered in six of his last 10 starts. He went deep in each of his first two at-bats Wednesday while still manning second base to limit the amount of running he needs to do on his sore hip. Despite the injury, he’s now 17-for-31 with 10 extra-base hits in his last eight games.
“I think it’s just the wave,” Betts said. “It’s a long season, you go through waves of power, no power, whatever. I’m just riding the wave.”
While neither Scherzer nor Betts were part of the Dodgers’ 2017 World Series team, they both understood what Wednesday meant to their teammates who were and the fans in attendance, who wouldn’t let them forget.
“It’s probably one of the best atmospheres I’ve played in,” said Betts, who has won two championships. “That was pretty amazing to be a part of.”
Five batters into the night, Scherzer was spotted four runs. Will Smith followed Betts’ solo homer with a three-run shot as the crowd erupted. It was Smith’s fifth home run in his last 13 games. Just as importantly, he seemed to be on the same page as Scherzer, who liked the low target the Dodgers catcher provided him.
“That’s a great sign going forward,” Scherzer said. “Now that we’ve gone through a game and understand how we look at different situations, now we can get more dialed in on how we want to execute.”
Scherzer finished the night with 17 swings and misses and was particularly pleased with his curveball, which he felt opened up the rest of his mix. The only two runs he allowed were a solo homer in the first inning to Michael Brantley and a softly hit RBI single from Kyle Tucker.
Among his 10 strikeouts were three from Altuve, who ended up striking out four times on the night for just the second time in his career, much to the excitement of a Dodger crowd that stayed rowdy all night. Scherzer knew from Tuesday night’s game what the crowd was going to be like, but it still made an impact on him.
As foreign as it felt to him to flip teams in the middle of the season, he said it felt a lot more normal once he went to the mound and won a game.
“To have the fans ask for a curtain call for me, I’ve never had that happen,” Scherzer said. “That’s really a cool moment, something I’ll never forget.”
It’s also exactly the kind of clutch, big-game performance the Dodgers envisioned when they added the eight-time All-Star to the rotation at the deadline.
“That’s what we signed up for,” said manager Dave Roberts. “His track record, pitching in big games, being a staff ace, being one of the best pitchers in baseball over a long period of time, you know the stage isn’t going to be too big for him.”
Quick Hits:
· AJ Pollock hit a two-run home run to extend his on-base streak to 22 games, tying his career high. His hitting streak is now at 13 games.
· Cole Hamels, who was signed Wednesday, is expected to throw a simulated game at Dodger Stadium on Saturday as he builds up as a starter.
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Max Scherzer's dazzling Dodger debut ends in a curtain call against the Astros - mlblogs.com
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