In his shortest non-injury related start of his career, Max Scherzer earned 7 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk and 2 strikeouts in a 20-1 loss against the Kansas City Royals. The two strikeouts were the only two batters the future Hall of Famer could retire, with his outing lasting 45 pitches and 10 batters.Jose Berrios relieved him in the very first inning. The seven runs earned were the most Max Scherzer had earned in an inning in his 18-year-long career. The 41-year-old described it as having a comebacker hit him straight in the face.“Everything that could go wrong went wrong. I took a haymaker to the face,” Scherzer said. "I made some pitches and they got hits on them. Nothing you can do in those situations. I just got beat in all facets of the game.”The Blue Jays' offense got the first run on the board thanks to a solo home run by George Springer. But in his very first at-bat, Scherzer gave a leadoff double to Carter Jensen, who was driven home by Bobby Witt Jr. Vinnie Pasquantino continued the barrage with another double.Following a disputed walk to Mikael Garcia, Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker was ejected by the umpires. Garcia and Pasquantino completed their runs on a Salvador Perez three-run homer, his 30th of the season. Adam Frazier hit a single, and one batter later, Michael Massey hit the second homer of the inning, Scherzer's 18th this season in 80.0 innings pitched. Jansen in his second at-bat of the inning hit another double prompting the Blue Jays to pull the plug on Scherzer. Blue Jays' 19-run differential loss tied the record for the biggest margin of defeat for a division leader in September.The seven runs earned dropped Max Scherzer's ERA to 5.06 for the season. In his last five starts, he has a 9.45 ERA. Before this stretch, he had earned just five runs in 25.0 innings of pitching and was looking certain to join the Blue Jays' postseason rotation. Now the team might be looking for a bullpen role for him.“You’re never as good as you think you are and you’re never as bad as you think you are,” Scherzer said. “This start doesn’t make me think that all of the sudden I’m the worst pitcher in the world. No. Things happen. I’ve got to turn the page and move on.”John Schneider says Max Scherzer's pitch count to not change after horrific startBlue Jays manager John Schneider, after the game, stated clearly that despite the start, Max Scherzer will not undergo any massive change that sees his workload get reduced. "It's a weird outing to go two-thirds of an inning and throw a lot of pitches," he said. "But I don't think that will affect him going forward. It won't make his pitch count any lower. Going forward he'll be on a normal workload and kind of normal pitch count."The Blue Jays have Shane Bieber and Kevin Gausman as starters who should be confirmed to start in the postseason, barring any injury. They would need at least one more starter to join them in the rotation, a decision which might hinge on their results in the next week.