Mad Max Helps Jays Plunder Pirates to Even Series
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What was the overall result of the Blue Jays vs. Pirates game and how did the hosts open the show?
All right, Kevin Barker. Well, a little less drama tonight. You know, nobody leaving the game with a groin injury or a hamstring injury. No dugout clearing incidents. Just pretty much straightforward 7-3 win for the Toronto Blue Jays. over the Pittsburgh Pirates alone. Welcome to Blue Jays Talk. It is Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker. The numbers to call, as always, 416-870-0590. 888-666-0590, star 590 if you want to text us. 590-590 is the text line, name, and location. Please, as always, standard message and data rates may apply. Kevin Barker, that is the fifth consecutive quality start for Max Scherzer tonight. He got all the offense he needed early. Alejandro Kirk adds a two-run home run. Gives him 10 home runs this year.
The Jays now have seven players in double digits with home runs. George Springer gets a home run, his 20th as well. Your thoughts on Max Scherzer?
I think out of the five quality starts in a row, I think this might be his worst one. 58% strike one. I mean, that's okay, not great. I mean, league average is somewhere 61, 62%. We had Pete Walker on today. 70%. Absolutely. That's what they're looking for. Yeah, that's how you keep it in the yard. I think that's the point, right? Everybody's talking about how you keep it in the yard. You sort of combat that with strike one. You put the hitter on the defense instead of the offense. In the first inning, you pitched around a two-out double. Second inning, bases loaded. After the two walks to lead off the inning, only gave up a run. The leadoff walk in the fourth. He had a 10-pitch inning in that fourth with a double play.
The straw made the nice play in the fifth inning to end the fifth. The straw, nice play diving. I mean, just the timing of when he leaves his feet is a big deal. I know he runs good routes. I know he gets good quick jumps. But for me, it's the timing of when he leaves his feet. It's that if you noticed – It looks effortless. It's like that fifth inning when he ended the inning with that play. It's just nice and easy. I mean, everybody else would be running through that wall. He just sort of runs back there and kind of jumps, leaves his feet at the right time. So, yeah, look, I think his fastball is really good. I think that's probably the best slider we've seen in a while from him. He threw 49 fastballs.
He had 26 swings. He had 11 called strikes. That means only 12 runs. of the fastballs didn't have action. That's a big deal. Velocity on the fastball has went up. If I'm standing on the on-deck circle, I talk about that all the time. I'm thinking about, okay, now he's got that little extra gear. Everybody's swinging at it. He must be locating it, leaving it on the edges, which is a big deal. I just think a lot of the traffic, right, they were the Pirates 1-7 with runners in scoring position. Like when he needed to make a play behind him, he needed to make a pitch. I think he did that lefties. The curveball to lefties was good. The slider to righties was good. He threw the changeup after the fastball into righties, which was a big pitch, trying to take the sting out of the bat.
I mean, that's sort of what pitching 101 is all about. This is what I think they got him here for.
How did Max Scherzer’s performance (quality start, pitch count, strike‑one rate) impact the 7‑3 win?
Jeff is, you know, when you don't have your best stuff, you're not locating your best, you can still give your team a quality start, take a little pressure off that pen. It always helps, too, when you have a three-nothing lead before you get the ball. So, yeah, I mean, it's exactly what you're supposed to do against a bad team. You're supposed to beat them most of the time.
And, you know, the other thing about Max Scherzer that I think is really noticeable, and probably not a surprise considering his reputation and considering his persona, but, you know, you got the sense after he came out of the game... you really got the sense of how vested he is in, in what is going on with this team. You know, we've heard a lot of people talk about John Schneider, talk about, you know, calling him basically assistant manager, Max Scherzer. He's very much a part of everything.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What was the overall result of the Blue Jays vs. Pirates game and how did the hosts open the show?
0:11–3:39
2
How did Max Scherzer’s performance (quality start, pitch count, strike‑one rate) impact the 7‑3 win?
3:39–8:33
3
Which Blue Jays hitters delivered the key home runs and how many did they each hit?
8:33–12:46
4
What did the hosts say about Jeff Hoffman’s bullpen work and his recent outings?
12:46–16:20
5
How are the Jays planning their rotation and bullpen for the postseason and the upcoming series?
16:20–19:56
6
What injury updates were given for Max Scherzer and other starters, and how might they affect future games?
19:56–23:54
7
What are the thoughts on Shane Bieber’s health, Tommy Nance’s role, and the overall depth of the pitching staff?
23:54–27:18
8
How do the hosts wrap up the episode and preview the next game and upcoming standings?
27:18–31:18
Speakers
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