HOUSTON — It had been a long few days for Max Scherzer — considering the neck spasms, and the neck brace, and the nagging feeling that his neck, of all things, may keep him from pitching in the biggest game of his life — so now he did what anyone would.
He stood on the stage, at the center of a World Series celebration late Wednesday night, and cried. He cried a lot. He cried while looking at his parents. He cried while looking at his wife. He cried while waving to his friends, the whole big group of them, because beneath that stage at Minute Maid Park in Houston, beneath everything, were all the people with whom he wanted to share this. He was a champion, finally, adding a title to his Hall of Fame case. But getting there wasn’t easy. Getting there meant needing Erica, his wife, to help him put on clothes and stay positive this week. Getting there meant taking a cortisone shot Sunday morning, then hoping the pain would ease, then hopping onto the mound to face the Houston Astros in Game 7.
Then Scherzer, as he does, put these Nationals on his back one more time.
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“It’s an emotional moment because getting to see my friends, getting to see my wife, and all the fight they’ve been through with it,” Scherzer said, pushing back tears, in the hours after the Nationals won it all. “And then seeing my parents, you know my parents have had this dream for me, as well. They’ve been with me my whole life, of having a dream, even when I was a little tyke, dreaming to be a big leaguer.
“And not just dreaming to be a big leaguer, but to be a World Series champion.”
There were all sides of Scherzer in a quiet hallway off the Nationals’ clubhouse party. Music thumped on the other side of a cinder block wall. Teammates walked by with full beers and fat sandwiches. But Scherzer stayed put, welcoming reporters into a circle that grew and shrank, winding through emotions and memories and the shades of his blunt personality. He choked up while discussing what Washington accomplished.
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The 35-year-old grew serious, his brows furrowed, when saying more clubs should invest in veterans and starting pitching. And he grinned, taking a sip from his Budweiser, when asked if the Nationals will try to match how the Capitals celebrated their 2018 Stanley Cup win. He sped through answers before scanning the group for the next question. It was a whirlwind.
With Scherzer, it always is.
“Heroes become heroes when the moment is biggest,” right fielder Adam Eaton said. “And Max Scherzer is a hero.”
He had completed five innings on 103 pitches in Game 7. He worked into jams, worked out of them and exited the field with the Nationals trailing by just two runs. But what it took for him to do that, to keep Washington within striking distance, was only known inside the clubhouse and his mind. He woke up Sunday and couldn’t lift his arm. He tried to get out of bed and rolled onto the floor. He soon drove to the park, and every pothole on the George Washington Parkway, every small bump, shot pain into his neck and a nerve above his right shoulder.
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That all kept him from starting Game 5. He called it one of the biggest disappointments of his career. But he believed he could return if the Nationals made it to the last day of the season. He really had no other choice. And once they did, after Stephen Strasburg lifted them with a Game 6 gem, Scherzer was in the dugout Wednesday evening, rocking back and forth, staring into the floor before turning his eyes to the field.
The ace always dials into a certain zone when his starts approach. Yet this looked like a different level. This was why Manager Dave Martinez trusted Scherzer to gut out five frames. This was why Martinez didn’t call the bullpen, bucking logic, when Scherzer’s command shook and his breaking pitches stayed flat. He thought Scherzer could figure it out, in real time, even if the stakes were higher than ever. A reliever didn’t start tossing until Patrick Corbin during the fifth. It seemed like a decision that could cost the Nationals a title. But Scherzer, in his final act of the season, stranded the bases loaded by striking out Robinson Chirinos with a change-up. He kept the Nationals alive.
And history soon followed.
“Because he’s Max Scherzer, and he’s a Hall of Famer,” said pitching coach Paul Menhart, smirking, when asked why the Nationals stuck with Scherzer and didn’t have anybody up. “And he can will you out if he wants to. He limited them to two runs in five innings with all that traffic he had. That’s just him. That’s how special he is.”
When it was over, when Daniel Hudson recorded the final out and the Nationals sprinted onto the field, those tears began. Scherzer found Aníbal Sánchez and wrapped him in a hug. They were teammates with the Detroit Tigers in 2012, in another stacked rotation, on a team that was swept in the World Series. Now they stumbled along the infield grass, doing a half turn, while both repeated: “We did it. We did it.”
Scherzer was then on the stage, smiling down, before he lifted the trophy high above his head. The remaining Nationals fans, hundreds of them behind the visiting dugout, screamed, and he screamed back. He didn’t appear to be in much pain. And in the clubhouse some 30 minutes later, when the speakers blared Queen’s “We Are The Champions” and everybody stopped to sing, Scherzer again hoisted the hardware while dozens cheered around him.
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It was fitting that he was at the front of that room, in the thick of that moment, finally and forever on top. It was a trying season for him, from six weeks on the injured list this summer, to working back, to the spasms that almost kept him sidelined. But it was all worth it in the end. He assured that he won’t have additional health concerns after pitching Wednesday. He will be ready for his offseason program, and spring training, and a season that is only five months away.
He is just going to take a few days, maybe more, to relax and reflect. He has earned that much.
“I’m just so proud of that clubhouse, everybody in that clubhouse,” Scherzer said, nodding to the noise behind him. “It’s not just one person. It’s a clubhouse. So hopefully everybody’s back.”
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