Max Scherzer admits shortcomings that led to Rangers' ALCS loss against Astros - "I made mistakes and got punished for it"

Texas Ranger veteran pitcher Max Scherzer was taken apart by the Houston Astros hitters in Wednesday's ALCS Game 3 at Globe Life Field. The Astros have made a comeback in the series, winning the game 8-5, and the best-of-seven series currently stands at 2-1.

Coming off an injury, many expected Scherzer to be rusty but the veteran was all over the place with his pitching, resulting in him leaking five earned runs off five hits, allowing one walk and striking out four in 4.0 innings pitched.

In a post-game media interaction, Max Scherzer made some honest assessment of his pitching but wanted to take positives from the game and look ahead.

"In these situations, look there's some bad in this I get it, but that's what you kinda gotta tune out and look at the good," Scherzer said. "Look, honestly, I made mistakes and got punished for it but there were some good things that I also did well."

"It's tough to take a post season loss anytime but I am not gonna beat myself down, so now I got to focus on ahead and move on. There's a lot of fight in this team and we'll come out tomorrow fighting too," Scherzer said.

For the Astros, Cristian Javier pitched 5.2 innings for two earned runs on three hits, allowing one walk and recording three strikeouts. Apart from this, Astros leadoff hitter Jose Altuve scored a homer in left-center field and went 2-5.

Moreover, Yordan Alvarez and Martin Maldonado contributed with two RBIs each. Game 4 of the ALCS series is scheduled on Thursday at Globe Life Field where Andrew Heaney will turn up against Astros right-hander Jose Urquidy.

Max Scherzer got injured in the regular season

Max Scherzer didn't make the ALDS roster as he could not recover in time after he suffered an injury on Sept. 12, 2023, in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. He suffered a low-grade strain of his right teres major muscle, located in the upper arm, and was ruled out of the remainder of the regular season.

Prior to the injury, Scherzer had a 13-6 record with an ERA of 3.77 and 174 strikeouts in 27 appearances during the regular season.