"I thought Max Scherzer was going to kill me" - John Schneider breaks silence after fiery moment with veteran pitcher goes viral

The Toronto Blue Jays have registered consecutive wins against the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series to fight back from 2-0 down to tie the series at 2-2.

The Blue Jays had veteran pitcher Max Scherzer on the mound in Thursday's Game 4. During the fifth inning of the matchup, with the Blue Jays leading 5-1, manager John Schneider walked to the mound to seemingly take Scherzer out of the game with a runner in a scoring position for the Mariners.

However, the veteran pitcher started shouting at the Blue Jays manager, refusing to leave the game. Schneider made his way back to the dugout, leaving the three-time Cy Young winner on the mound, who struck out the final batter to end the inning.

After the game, the Blue Jays manager broke silence about the heated outburst from his ace. Schneider said:

“Been waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound. … I was joking with him, I’ve been waiting for that moment since our Zoom call in the offseason before we signed him. Loved it. There’s a little more of that in between (before) I sent him back out for the sixth, too.

“It was awesome. I thought he was gonna kill me. It was great. He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out. It’s not fake. That’s the thing. It’s not fake. He has this 'Mad Max' persona, but he backed it up tonight. The infielders had a good laugh, too, and he got the job done.”

Max Scherzer got honest about interaction with Blue Jays manager

Max Scherzer held the Mariners to three hits in his 5.2 innings, conceding two earned runs with five strikeouts. After the game, the 41-year-old pitcher explained why he refused to come out of the game in the fifth inning:

"I understood where the game state was, knew how I wanted to attack, and all of a sudden, I saw Schneids coming out, and I went 'Whoa whoa whoa whoa, I’m not coming out of this ballgame. I feel too good.' And so we had a little conversation that basically I wanted to stay in the ballgame, but just with some other words involved."

While Scherzer was solid in his first postseason start this year, Blue Jays sluggers Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Andres Gimenez led the offensive charge with home runs on Thursday.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash