TORONTO — Game 7 never gets old. Nor does it ever fail to humble even the greatest players to grace the October stage.
Max Scherzer is about to embark on his 11th winner-take-all game in his storied major league career, and in the moments after his Toronto Blue Jays kept their season alive with a 6-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, his mental record book was whirring, taking him back to his playoff debut as a 26-year-old all the way through the two World Series championships he’s netted in the past six years.
“God, another one,” says Scherzer, stomping a bit and shaking his head, as is his wont. “I’m just walking around, going through all my Game 7s, my Game 5s, elimination games, last day, all these moments and you remember all of them.
“To get another one? My gosh. These are just so special, so hard to get to, that to get another crack at it – this is what you live for.”
Scherzer kept private what he plans to impart to his mates, but it will be experience borne of seven Division Series Game 5s, one wild card game, an ALCS Game 7 and of course, Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, when Scherzer started the clincher for the Washington Nationals two days after getting scratched from a start due to a debilitating neck malady.
