{"id":655760,"date":"2026-04-01T03:35:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655760\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T03:35:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T03:35:18","slug":"scherzer-anchors-bounce-back-win-as-blue-jays-out-team-rockies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655760\/","title":{"rendered":"Scherzer anchors bounce-back win as Blue Jays ‘out-team’ Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 On a few occasions this spring, John Schneider described the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u2019 approach as trying to \u201cout-team the other team,\u201d and Tuesday night, game No. 5 of the regular season, demonstrated that ethos in action.<\/p>\n

Cody Ponce\u2019s knee injury 2.1 innings into his outing Monday left the team in need of a lengthy outing, one that Max Scherzer delivered over six strong innings of one-run ball in a 5-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Catcher Tyler Heineman<\/a> closing out the previous night\u2019s 14-5 drubbing with two innings of mop-up duty meant that relievers Mason Fluharty and Braydon Fisher were available to work clean seventh and eighth innings behind Scherzer, with Jeff Hoffman fresh for the ninth.<\/p>\n

A three-run seventh that opened some margin for error on a tight 2-1 Blue Jays lead also allowed Tyler Rogers, who\u2019d pitched in three of the first four games, to get at least a partial breather, as he warmed just in case in the eighth but wasn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n

Heineman, meanwhile, despite the physical toll of throwing 27 pitches, was behind the plate and had two hits while scoring once, while also helping the Blue Jays match up better in Wednesday\u2019s series finale when Alejandro Kirk will start versus lefty Kyle Freeland.<\/p>\n

All the marginal gains in that interconnectivity was a fundamental part of their success a season ago, and a dynamic they\u2019re seeking to maintain and build on this season.<\/p>\n

The starting point, of course, was Scherzer, who signed March 2, looked close to ready then and kept the Rockies in check in the first start of his 19th\u00a0season in the majors, burned only by a Hunter Goodman solo shot in the sixth that ate into a 2-0 Blue Jays lead.<\/p>\n

They took control in the fifth off reliever Juan Mejia, subbing in after starter Ryan Feltner left the game after three innings with a right glute contusion from an Andres Gimenez liner, loading the bases with one out.<\/p>\n

Jaden Hill took over and Jesus Sanchez ripped an RBI single that opened the scoring before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. worked a bases-loaded walk to bring home a second run. Hill kept the Blue Jays from blowing it open, though, catching Kazuma Okamoto looking on a slider that survived an ABS challenge before getting Nathan Lukes swinging.<\/p>\n

No matter, Sanchez and Guerrero opened the seventh with base hits before RBI singles by Okamoto and Lukes extended the lead. After Okamoto was thrown out trying to stretch to third, Ernie Clement\u2019s RBI double made it 5-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 On a few occasions this spring, John Schneider described the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 approach as trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,4,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-655760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-toronto","13":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","14":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116327360914454272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}