'Efficient' Mad Max: King of the Queen City

CINCINNATI -- Elite pitchers like Max Scherzer are typically dominant wherever they go, making it slightly less notable when they have a string of success at one particular venue.

But there are exceptions, and Scherzer’s small sampling of appearances at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati is worth noting. Including his seven-inning performance Saturday that led the Dodgers to a 5-1 win over the Reds, Scherzer has a 0.33 ERA in four starts in the Queen City. He’s allowed one run over 27 innings, while racking up 42 strikeouts.

He struck out seven Saturday, marking the only time he did not record double-digits strikeouts while pitching in Cincinnati.

Scherzer, a leading candidate to win the National League Cy Young Award, hasn’t lost since May 30, when he allowed two runs over six innings to the Brewers. Since then, he’s won 11 decisions in a row, and in his last 16 starts (since June 4), he has a 1.90 ERA and 131 strikeouts. Seven of those 11 wins came after he joined the Dodgers.

“I like it, I like the redundancy,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s been very good. He’s prepared, he competes and he makes pitches when he needs to. For him to go seven, it was great for us. After a night like last night, for us to come back was big.”

It was timely, too. The Dodgers, locked in a tight race with the first-place Giants, remained two game back in the race for the NL West. San Francisco shut out Atlanta, 2-0, later Saturday.

One of the main reasons the Dodgers have stayed so close in the race is Scherzer, who has been everything the club envisioned when it obtained him from the Nationals in a deal just prior to the Trade Deadline. In nine starts for Los Angeles, Scherzer has a 0.78 ERA and 0.66 WHIP. He has walked seven and struck out 79.

He handled the Reds with the same ease as when he faced the Astros, Phillies, Mets, Padres, Braves and Cardinals since becoming a Dodger. He hasn’t allowed more than six hits against any team. The Reds managed just two hits off him Saturday, having almost no luck with the curveball that Scherzer identified as his main weapon in this outing.

Scherzer threw the pitch 12 times, getting seven swings and misses and three strikeouts with it.

“I just had a good feel for it today,” Scherzer said. “Every pitch plays off each other. Every pitch makes every other pitch better. So … if I can be on with my curveball, that makes every other pitch good. All pitches play off each other, and then it comes down to sequencing, how you mix and match and when you use it -- when you're hard, soft, behind the count, ahead of the count. That's my game -- to be able to throw any pitch at any time.”

This is arguably the most dominant stretch Scherzer has had in his career, which is no small feat given he’s been on a Hall of Fame trajectory for years, and was a key figure in the Nationals’ World Series run two years ago.

“I was there for at least parts of his Cy Young years,” said Trea Turner, who came over with Scherzer from the Nationals. “And for me, this is as good as I can remember him. He’s been so efficient lately. In the past, he’d have his games where he’d throw 100 pitches in six innings and have to grind it out. But I feel like in his last few starts, he's been so efficient and he's still striking people out.”

Scherzer would go as far as to acknowledge that he’s having a good stretch, perhaps one of his best ever. Beyond that, he emphasized the long-term process, rather than short-term outcomes.

“I don't get caught up in results,” he said. “It’s a process. It's executing pitches, it's having every single pitch and going out there with a plan and knowing what you want to do with it. Is getting results great? Yes, it is. But at the same time, I'm not worried about results because at any one moment in time, the results can flip on you.”

Whether it’s “process” or “results,” the Dodgers are banking on more of this as they move toward October.

“I feel like that's my best strength, to go out there and compete with some intensity,” Scherzer said. “It just seems like those guys feed off of it, and so it's been fun to play with these guys, and hopefully here in the playoffs we can have a good run as well.”