– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Anything that resulted with Max Scherzer walking off the mound healthy after his first start of the season would have been deemed a success by the Texas Rangers on Sunday afternoon. What they got was vintage Max Scherzer, part of the continuation of their dominance on the mound over the weekend.
The 39-year-old Scherzer went five scoreless innings in his 2024 debut, while Jose Ureña continued throwing zeroes for the final four innings as the Rangers shut out the Kansas City Royals 4-0 to complete a three-game sweep of the series inside Globe Life Field on Sunday afternoon. Wyatt Langford hit an RBI double in the fourth inning to open the scoring for Texas, who have now on four straight.
Scherzer last took the mound during Game 3 of last year’s World Series, and missed the beginning of the season after undergoing surgery in the offseason for a herniated disc in his back. As he was close to returning to the mound a month ago, Scherzer then dealt with a nerve issue that caused right thumb soreness and pushed his season debut back.
On his debut, Scherzer faced one batter above the minimum while striking out four and allowing one hit. There was no pitch limit for Scherzer, who threw just 57 pitches on the evening and was in talks with manager Bruce Bochy and pitching coach Mike Maddux before being removed from the start.
“Everything from a baseball standpoint was telling me to go back out there,” Scherzer said. “You know, I’m pitching well, I’m throwing the ball well.I just don’t know how I’m going to recover from this. … I was feeling my forearm kind of fatigued.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 36 pictures in total.
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