CLEVELAND — Three-time Cy Young Award winner
The 40-year-old Scherzer threw his most pitches since last July 25, throwing 55 of 83 pitches for strikes. He gave up a two-out double in the fourth, and a pitch-clock violation led to one of his walks.
“I made a bad pitch, so I’m not going to blame that on the clock,” Scherzer said.
Scherzer finished with a scoreless fifth inning and a 4-3 lead.
He signed a $15.5 million, one-year deal with the Blue Jays in February. He left his Toronto debut against Baltimore on March 29 after three innings because of soreness in his right lat muscle. The next day, Toronto put Scherzer on the injured list because of inflammation in his thumb.
The Blue Jays declared Scherzer ready to return after he threw 30-40 pitches in a bullpen session Sunday morning.
Scherzer gave up two runs, struck out four and walked none over 4⅓ innings in the second of two rehab starts for Triple-A Buffalo last week, and he struck out eight in 4⅓ scoreless innings for the Bisons in a home start against Worcester before that.
