Outside The Confines: To the Max!

Max Scherzer is a generational talent. He is, without question, one of the best pitchers of the last decade, and has just about every conceivable award and accolade to show for it. He’s also putting on a weekly spectacle to show voters why he should receive his third career Cy Young award this season.

On Sunday, he added another milestone to his list of achievements by collecting his 3,000th career strikeout against the Padres. Scherzer is only the 19th pitcher in major league history to get to the 3K mark. Of course, the victim of 3,000, Eric Hosmer, would later get his revenge by ending Max’s bid for a perfect game, getting the only Padres hit of the day. Max added to the day’s magnificent outing by collecting an immaculate inning while he was at it.

Scherzer is a sensational pitcher who is all but assured a first-ballot pass to the Hall of Fame after his retirement, and Sunday’s game showed that he’s not about to slow down any time soon.

Here’s some coverage of Scherzer’s big game, as well as a few articles from last week about Scherzer that seem prescient now.

• ESPN looks at the milestone event and the smaller pieces of Sunday’s incredible game.
• Jeff Passan wonders if Max Scherzer is the best trade deadline pitcher acquisition ever.
• Brittany Ghiroli and Maria Torres look at the single-minded determination that has gotten Scherzer to where he is today. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Matt Kelly wonders which active pitcher might be next to join Scherzer in the 3000 K club.

Now on to the rest of the weekend’s best offerings!

• It would be impossible not to acknowledge in some fashion that Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of the events of September 11. As part of city-wide remembrances, the Yankees and Mets wore “New York” jerseys and represented themselves as “one unified New York.” Madeline Coleman shares details on the event.
• In other Yankees news, Buster Olney wonders why the Yankees aren’t better.
• Devan Fink looks at the incredible performance of Darin Ruf, who might just be the best hitter on any playoff-bound team.
• Can a player win the Triple Crown and still not get any MVP votes? Emma Baccelierri looks at the incredible season of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
• Is deep breathing the key to the Red Sox success? Jen McCaffrey looks at how Rafael Devers keeps his cool in the batter’s box. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Trevor Bauer’s administrative leave has been extended through the postseason, reports Alden Gonzalez.
• Marc Normandin dives into the proposal for baseball free agency, and explains why it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
• The Orioles/Jays series this weekend was a wild ride.

• Over the three-game series this weekend the Jays scored 44 runs against the O’s.
• Speaking of the Orioles, just how bad can tanking teams get before we start to ask “how much losing is too much losing?” Opinion piece by Margaret Moorman.
• Megan Garcia looks at MLB’s inaugural “Creator Class,” a group of social media stars bringing baseball to TikTok.
• Jay Jaffe looks at how natural is healing and things are looking a lot more back to normal in MLB now.
• We might be back to normal but it doesn’t mean we’re done with no-hitters, as the Brewers cobbled together a team effort this weekend. Story by Nick Selbe.
• Will Sammon gives us a more detailed look into that big Brewers no-no. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Rob Arthur looks at the fine art of managers using their challenges. (Baseball Prospectus Premium required.)
• Kevin Goldstein might not understand the Rays, but he does take a stab at looking how they expertly manage to mitigate risk.
• Yadier Molina will take a farewell tour with the Cardinals next year and Brittany Ghiroli reports on why Yadi deserves to go out on his terms. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Austin Adams is on his way to a single-season hit-by-pitch record, and he’s only pitched 50 innings. Story by Zach Kram.
• Max Scherzer might have 3,000 Ks, but Miguel Cabrera seems hell-bent on getting to 3,000 hits before the end of the year. He’s gotten a hit in nine straight plate appearances. With 26 hits left to go, he might just get there...
• Love this.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.