ARLINGTON, Texas — Max Scherzer has a cut on the thumb of his pitching hand that he doesn’t think will hinder him from playing in the World Series.
The Texas Rangers starter had a Band-Aid on the inside of his right thumb near the nail before throwing a bullpen session Wednesday, two days before the World Series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“It’s just a cut. I can wear a bandage, throw a bullpen on it,” Scherzer said. “The pain of it, I can pitch through that. That’s not the problem. It’s just it would get bloody.”
Scherzer said he pitched with the cut in Games 3 and 7 of the AL Championship Series against Houston.
A 39-year-old right-hander and a three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer was obtained in a trade with the New York Mets on July 30. He went 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA in eight starts for Texas.
His regular season was cut short on Sept. 12 because of a strained muscle in his right shoulder, and he returned to make a pair of starts in the ALCS. Scherzer allowed five runs over four innings and took the loss in Game 3, and then gave up two runs in 2 2/3 innings in a no-decision in Game 7.
“It’s almost like the month off, the skin on top of the thumb, which is typically maybe a little more calloused, went away,” he said. “Now, when you come back, it’s soft and now it got cut.”
Scherzer is in the World Series for the third time following a 2012 loss with Detroit against Bruce Bochy’s San Francisco Giants and a 2019 title with Washington over the Astros. This time, he’s playing for Bochy, the Rangers’ 68-year-old manager.
Scherzer was 13-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 27 starts for the Mets and Rangers, raising his career record to 214-108 with a 3.15 ERA.