Max Scherzer’s adjustments have him atop the National League and hitters flummoxed

MIAMI — Max Scherzer wasn’t sure if his last outing had drained his arm too much, costing him a chance to be the starter for the National League in the All-Star Game. He threw 120 pitches on July 7, emptying what remained before baseball’s All-Star-break began.

Monday afternoon in Miami, the Washington Nationals’ ace walked out from behind a black curtain in full uniform alongside National League All-Star manager Joe Maddon. Scherzer decided he was rested enough to work Tuesday night at the All-Star Game in Marlins Park, making him the fifth pitcher in Major League Baseball history to start an All-Star Game in both leagues. Maddon was convinced by Scherzer’s proficient pre-All-Star break work to make him the starter, even if Los Angeles left-hander Clayton Kershaw was an option.

“When you walk in this clubhouse and you’re with all the All-Stars, you’re tickled to be in that clubhouse with that recognition,” Scherzer said. “When you have a manager say, ’We’re going to give you the ball,’ it’s icing on the cake.”

How has Scherzer arrived at this point? He’s 32 years old, and will be 33 by the end of the month. This is his ninth full season in the major leagues, his third with the Nationals. He is known by hitters. He knows them. Just how does he keep winning those matchups with so many blueprints laying around? The difference between Scherzer and other pitchers are the adjustments Scherzer makes, the kind that leads to two CY Young awards, two no-hitters and two All-Star Game starts.

“Look I’ve had a great first half, I’m going out there and accomplishing new things, I’m throwing the ball well, but I also know the rest of the league is making adjustments against me,” Scherzer said Friday. “It’s gonna be a fight in the second half, they’ve seen the way I’m pitching a little bit differently and now they’re making adjustments to that and it’s going to be a grind in the second half especially in the division, they’re going to keep grinding you hard, so in one hand, I can say I’ve had a great first half, in the other, I know how much is in front of me with the rest of the season.”

Examine Scherzer’s first half and there’s no question why Maddon selected him to start the game. Scherzer has a league-best 2.10 ERA, 0.779 WHIP, has allowed 5.12 hits per nine innings and leads pitchers in WAR (4.10). Outside of statistical categories, Scherzer flirted with his third no-hitter into the eighth inning of a June game against Miami and became the third-fastest pitcher to reach 2,000 strikeouts. He has already reached 11 double-digit strikeout games at the break.

Scherzer’s average start lasts around 7 ⅓ innings, because Nationals manager Dusty Baker likes to leave Scherzer out there for as long as possible. Baker has received criticism throughout his career for burning through pitchers, and yet, it’s easy to see why he would want Scherzer to keep going as long as he can.

“You’ve got to give him a chance, because like I said, who can you bring in out of the bullpen that’s better than Max?” Baker said.

Scherzer’s progression is striking. After his freshman year in college, he spent the summer with the La Crosse Loggers of Northwoods League. There he was the team’s closer and trying to corral his fastball. A slender lefty made his way through La Crosse, too: Chris Sale, who will start for the American League Monday.

In his 2008 rookie season, Scherzer threw his four-seam fastball 72.8 percent of the time. That number has declined every season and he’s throwing it a career-low 49.1 percent in 2017, according to FanGraphs, though he has maintained its velocity. Scherzer is throwing as hard this season as he did in 2012.

And every year, Scherzer tweaks, or even reinvents, his game to make up for not throwing his four-seam fastball. During his 2013 AL Cy Young season with the Tigers, Scherzer added a cutter to his game, throwing it eight percent of the time when he had previously thrown it less than two percent in his other seasons.

This year, Scherzer has thrown his slider — which he sometimes refers to as a “power cutter” — a career-high 27 percent of the time to deal with lefties, a six percent jump from 2016.

“It’s hard to have an approach against him,” Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. “He mixes things up so well. Usually guys that throw 95, 97 mph throw that —- it’s not that he doesn’t throw his heater a lot. He’ll go a start against a team where he doesn’t throw his heater a lot, then the next time he faces that team, he’ll throw him a lot of first-pitch off-speed pitches to get ahead. He does such a good job of preparing and looking at what guys have done, then executing his plan.”

When Maddon originally thought about choosing a starter for the All-Star Game, the options came down to Scherzer and Kershaw. Kershaw made that decision a no-brainer after he announced he would be unavailable for the game because of a scheduled start on Sunday.

But Maddon said he would have chosen Scherzer regardless.

“If you just broke down the numbers, I am being honest, I had already chosen Max, based on what I had just read numerically,” Maddon said.

Kershaw carries an appreciation for Scherzer’s mound mentality. He reclined at his designated spot Monday on the outfield warning track and declined to specifically compare himself to Scherzer, who was in his 2006 draft class and carries numerous historical parallels with Kershaw, but outlined what he liked.

“Super-competitive,” Kershaw said. “Super-intense. He’s got that demeanor about him that he doesn’t expect anybody to ever get a hit off of him. He’s got that strut, that walk that he knows when he’s going good. I can only imagine what it’s like when he’s on your team. It’s probably a good feeling to have him out there.”

That strut? When he circles the dirt of the mound after a strikeout?

“Like he’s carrying suitcases right here (puts hands at his sides) when he’s getting on a roll,” Kershaw said. “I love it. You can tell that he’s fiercely confident in his ability to get guys out. In the end, he has a bunch of pitches to do it.”

So far, Scherzer has lived up to the seven-year, $210 million contract he signed in 2015 with Washington. Baker said last month the contract has nothing to do with how Scherzer approaches the game, joking it only matters on the first and 15th of every month. Instead, Baker said there’s a pride that goes along with getting a big contract.

Scherzer has that pride.

After Scherzer is done with the color, culture and heat of Miami, he will be back to his charts and video. The league he has dominated for two-plus seasons will return to their information desperate to unlock what this guy is doing to them. Fastball? Slider? Curveball? When is it coming? Where is it going? Why then?

“This is gonna be fun,” Scherzer said.

— Matthew Paras reported from Washington.