LOS ANGELES – Max Scherzer will make history when he takes the mound for Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium on Monday evening. He’ll become the first pitcher in Major League Baseball history to start a World Series game for four different teams.

Scherzer has done it for the Detroit Tigers (2012), the Washington Nationals (2019), the Texas Rangers (2023) and now the Toronto Blue Jays. At 41, he’s looking for his third ring, having won previously with the Nationals and Rangers.

It never gets old, Scherzer said on Saturday night before the Los Angeles Dodgers tied the best-of-seven series 1-1 at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

“This is awesome,” Scherzer said. “This is what you play for, to be able to get to this spot, to get to this moment, to have a shot at it, to have another crack at this. There are so many great players who have never gotten to a World Series, so many great players who’ve only been to one World Series.”

Scherzer’s not one of them. In his previous four World Series starts, he’s gone 1-0 with a 3.26 ERA, 19 strikeouts and 10 walks in 19 1/3 innings pitched—hardly Sandy Koufax or Whitey Ford territory.

But Scherzer is aware this could be the last World Series start, given his age and injury history. His last Fall Classic start—for the Rangers, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, in Game 3 at Chase Field two years ago—ended after three innings when his back seized up. He later had back surgery and made only nine starts for the Rangers in 2024, his return complicated by thumb, lat and arm injuries.

This season, Scherzer made 17 starts after signing a one-year, $15.5 million deal with the Blue Jays as a free agent. He left his debut start in March with a right thumb injury and didn’t return until June 25.

One would think he has something to prove.

“I wouldn’t characterize it like that,” Scherzer said. “I’m here to compete. I’m here to win. I wouldn’t be looking backwards at all for any motivation. I have plenty of motivation. I’m here to win, and I’ve got a clubhouse full of guys who want to win, too. We’re a great team, and that’s the only thing I need to think about.”

He’s made one start thus far this postseason; Jays manager John Schneider turned to him in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series in Seattle against the Mariners to tie the series. Skeptics were dubious. Scherzer hadn’t pitched in nearly a month. There were two outs in the fifth inning, and Schneider went to the mound intending to lift him. Scherzer jumped into the manager’s face and refused to go.

“We had a little [animated] conversation and basically I said I wanted to stay in the ballgame,” Scherzer said at the time. “There were some other words involved. I knew I was strong. I knew I could get outs in that situation.”

Schneider let him stay in and trotted off the field.

“He said he was good, and I said, ‘Are you sure?’ Schneider recalled. “I can’t repeat what he said next. You can probably read lips. I told him, ‘I’m leaving you in to execute.’ And he did.”

Scherzer struck out Randy Arozarena to end the fifth and preserve his own win. Schneider let him come out for the sixth, but when he walked Jorge Polanco with two out that was it. Schneider gave the sign to the bullpen just as he left the dugout. No more questions to ask.

Scherzer has played under some of the top managers in MLB history, and Schneider has learned what the others have before him—don’t mess with Scherzer. 

“Don’t even talk to him when he has that look in his eyes,” Schneider said.

Scherzer has a rare but harmless genetic eye condition where one eye is brown and the other is blue, and his stare can pierce you. Couple that with a stubborn and competitive nature and you have the makings of a pitcher who owns 221 regular season wins, eight more in the postseason and three Cy Young Awards across both leagues during his 18-year career.

Before the celebration was even complete after the Blue Jays won Game 7 and their first AL pennant in 32 years, Scherzer began harassing Schneider about where he’d pitch in the World Series rotation.

“I was like, ‘Max, I’m enjoying a beer, man,’” said Schneider, who finally told him he was starting Game 3 on Friday in the hours before the World Series began. “He’s stepped on land mines, he’s dodged land mines in a World Series, in a seven-game series. He’s regimented. He wants to know.”

Now he knows that this could be it. He’s not getting any younger. He’s not getting healthier. He’s a free agent again when the World Series is over. But it’s been quite a ride, one that’s destined to end with induction in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. But first things first.

“I’ve been in these moments, and I’ve gotten beat,” Scherzer said. “I know what happens when you lose. When you lose you have to really reflect upon and think about all the different things, why you lost. But this, it’s a culmination of everything.”

Of course, Scherzer has no intention of losing.