Dodgers: Max Scherzer’s Thursday start last thing fans need before Wild Card

No NL West title for the Dodgers? No problem! Not with Max Scherzer lined up for the one-game Wild Card duel, carrying an unflappable record during the second half in LA.

Well, uh … some problem.

While fans of less fortunate organizations might scoff at the idea that the defending World Champions have anything to huff and puff about, it’s objectively fairly infuriating that a potential 100-plus-win team is going to have to trudge into a winner-take-all matchup with a team that’s hotter than they are.

MLB’s playoffs are the most unpredictable of any sport’s, and the best team doesn’t always win. You don’t have to make that maxim any clearer to Dodgers fans, who’ve been told they have the best and deepest roster in the game annually for a half-decade, with only a shortened-season title to show for it.

If the Dodgers do get stuck in a one-gamer just because the Giants went supernova, a similar position to the 2018 Yankees, a 100-win club that couldn’t topple the 108-win Red Sox, that would be quite frustrating.

At the very least, the team knows they have an historic hoss lined up for that all-important one-gamer, or any tiebreaker that may arise.

Look, even Dave Roberts said it out loud.

Dodgers ace Max Scherzer suddenly has us skittish.

Dave Roberts is right. Scherzer is the best pitcher in baseball. There’s no one we’d rather have on the bump.

Of course … of course … in the interest of high anxiety, we couldn’t simply enter October without a question mark haunting us, though, could we? An oversized question mark, pointing and giggling.

Scherzer rode an untouchable 0.78 ERA into Thursday’s contest in Colorado, but … uh … then Thursday in Colorado happened.

Yes, it was Coors. No, the longball was not the suddenly-hittable Scherzer’s only issue, with the red-hot Cardinals licking their lips in the foreground.

But, after being staked to a 3-0 lead, Scherzer immediately wilted, allowing a two-run, well-struck single to the opposing pitcher, Kyle Freeland.

A few innings later, Freeland got him again, working a crucial walk that led to the tie-breaking run.

Scherzer should be the absolute least of Dodgers fans’ worries — and, believe us, if we’re power ranking worries, he’s still towards the bottom.

Just in time, though, frustration arrived on Thursday.

There’s no preferable option to Scherzer, of course. Co-ace Walker Buehler’s innings are piling up, and they’ll be a concern no matter when he makes his postseason debut. Yanking his schedule around doesn’t seem prudent at this point in time.

Does a rehabbing Clayton Kershaw make sense? A greenhorn Julio Urias? Scherzer’s the guy, and he hasn’t just been great until recent days. He’s been perfect.

It’s just one start. It’s just one start. It’s just one start in a bandbox.

But, just to be safe, let’s check in on how the Cardinals are doing.

Got it. Let’s not.

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