Dodgers: Max Scherzer’s postgame confession should worry fans

At some point down the stretch, Los Angeles Dodgers ace Max Scherzer lost his arm strength.

Was it a direct consequence of his game-ending, nail-biting relief appearance in Game 5 of the NLDS? Possible.

Or did his troubles begin during the final few weeks of September, when the previously-untouchable Scherzer allowed five earned runs to the Padres and Rockies in back-to-back starts to end the month?

The Dodgers still got the win in both outings (of course, they always do when backing Mad Max), so we were liable to gloss over those starts en route to predicting the playoffs. Unfortunately, that narrative was irrevocably altered on Sunday night in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves, when Scherzer began the postgame scrum by filling the audience in on what had been going on. Or what had only just begun? No matter; the consequences are the same.

Scherzer admitted in the aftermath of Sunday’s walk-off loss that his arm was dead, preventing him from ever loosening up properly and getting through the fifth inning in a game that featured far more bullpen use than we expected.

Dodgers ace Max Scherzer has a dead arm.

Though we’ll likely never know what caused this malady or when it began, that won’t stop us from being frustrated with Scherzer’s strange usage patterns, dating back to the NLDS.

We know the powerful righty is his own biggest advocate. We know a hopped-up Scherzer is likely more effective, in a short sprint, than any back-end reliever.

But if his dead arm was barking — or, rather, not making a peep — why was he used at the tail end of Game 5 to secure the save? If he argued for his own usage, why didn’t Dave Roberts stop it? Did Roberts know his arm wasn’t right?

And if the numbness hadn’t yet began, but was instead caused by such unorthodox usage, that raises an entirely new set of questions.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers’ bulldog, this marks the second consecutive playoff run in which his body, tested and tortured and pounded over the course of a long season, has betrayed him in the short term.

In 2019 with the Nationals, it was Scherzer’s seizing back which took a World Series start off his plate and led to a less-than-complete Game 7 performance against all odds, days after he could barely stand.

This year, he’s battling dead arm at the worst possible time, with the Dodgers now two losses from elimination.

LA still holds the talent advantage in the series, as well as the pitching edge in both Games 3 and 4, with Walker Buehler and Julio Úrias (we’ll get to his bullpen usage in a second, too…) opposing Charlie Morton and a blank space. But with Scherzer’s malady no longer a secret, his dominance won’t be assured even if Los Angeles reaches a Game 6, a fact they’d rather nobody know.

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