Max Scherzer’s off-day preparation includes time on the piano. Don’t knock it until you try it.
Scherzer (1-2, 9.58 ERA) will get the ball on Saturday for the Toronto Blue Jays against Zac Gallen (1-1, 3.60) of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The veteran right-handers will meet Saturday in Phoenix in the second game of a three-game set.
A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer found a keyboard in a room near the Blue Jays clubhouse on Friday and started tapping out Van Halen’s “Right Now.” He has credited the dexterity required to play the piano with extending his career by helping to relieve the discomfort of a troublesome right thumb injury.
“When you’re playing different keys and notes and chords, your hands are in very unique positions,” Scherzer told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal late in spring training.
“It makes you really work through your fingertips. By working those muscles in my hand, it got my fingers, ‘quote unquote,’ stronger. All of a sudden, that alleviated the thumb pain.”
Scherzer will attempt to put the Blue Jays out of their pain on Saturday. The reigning American League champions have lost five of the past six games and are 3-11 in April, occupying last place in the AL East.
Gallen, 30, also will look to extend an Arizona streak.
The Diamondbacks have won nine of the past 12 games after beating the Blue Jays 6-3 behind Michael Soroka’s fourth win of the season Friday.
Gallen pitched five scoreless innings in his most recent start and took a 2-0 lead into the sixth before the Philadelphia Phillies drove him out with five straight hits — including a homer and three doubles — as he took a no-decision in Arizona’s 4-3 victory.
“I think as a team, we believe in the talent that’s in here,” Gallen said. “I think guys are playing free and not playing scared.”
Gallen pitched six scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory over Detroit on April 1, them went five innings in each of his successive two outings.
He has faced the Blue Jays twice in his career without much success, going 0-1 with a 9.35 ERA in two starts. The last time he pitched against Toronto came in 2024.
Scherzer allowed one run over six innings in a 5-1 victory over Colorado on March 31 but has given up 10 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in his two starts since.
He left his April 6 start against the Los Angeles Dodgers after two innings while dealing with right forearm tightness, but he said that was not a factor in an 8-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins last Sunday.
The Twins scored eight runs off Scherzer in 2 1/3 innings, with homers from Kody Clemens and Tristan Gray.
“It actually loosened up on me,” Scherzer said of the forearm after the game. “I felt like it was coming out of my hand better. I was able to throw all of my pitches and as I got out of that outing. I haven’t felt the forearm completely tighten up, so that’s a good sign.”
Scherzer, 41, is with his seventh team and in his 19th season. He began his career with the Diamondbacks, who selected him with the 11th overall pick in the 2006 MLB Draft out of college at Missouri. In late 2009, he was dealt to the Tigers as part of a three-team, seven-player deal that also involved Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson.
He has started 12 games against Arizona and is 9-0 with a 2.65 ERA. He has struck out 111 and walked 19 in 78 innings.
–Field Level Media
