Max Scherzer exits start early due to arm fatigue in Rangers’ loss

ARLINGTON, Texas — Max Scherzer exited after two innings because of arm fatigue in his first start for the Texas Rangers out of the All-Star break.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner allowed four runs as eight of the 14 Baltimore batters he faced reached base Saturday night in the Rangers’ 8-4 loss.

It was only his sixth start since offseason back surgery, and it came a week before his 40th birthday.

“Once I got out there, (the fatigue) was affecting my stuff, and it was affecting my location. … I knew I needed to come out of the ballgame, otherwise I was going to be risking further injury,” Scherzer said. “But the good news to it is that I didn’t have any zings, I didn’t strain anything.”

Scherzer (1-3) had thrown four innings last Sunday in a planned shorter outing.

He then threw a bullpen Wednesday while at home in Florida during the break, and felt he was going to be recovered from that for the start, though he was concerned about the pitch count and how deep he could go if he started to have any issues.

José Ureña replaced Scherzer to start the third inning with the Rangers down 4-0.

Scherzer threw 34 of his 53 pitches for strikes while allowing five hits and two walks.

He struck out one, moving within two of tying for 10th place on baseball’s career strikeout list, and committed a throwing error after fielding a bunt single.

“That’s a lot of pitches for two innings. I didn’t want to push him anymore. … That was far enough,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’ve got to keep him healthy and fresh.”

Scherzer’s velocity was down a bit, with 20 fastballs averaging 91.3 mph — below his season average of 92.7 mph. It was also down on his 11 sliders and 11 changeups.

It was Scherzer’s shortest outing since June 11, 2021, when he threw only 12 pitches for Washington and was facing just his second batter against San Francisco when he felt a groin tweak.

He exited that game after stretching his body and taking one warmup pitch.

After surgery last December to repair a herniated disk in his lower back, Scherzer dealt with a nerve issue during his rehab that was diagnosed after he experienced right thumb soreness.

Scherzer has thrown 29 1/3 innings over his six starts this season, with 24 strikeouts, six walks and a 3.99 ERA.

Before being limited to four innings while allowing one run against Houston before the break, he had pitched into the seventh inning in consecutive starts.

Neither Scherzer nor Bochy seemed overly concerned by the short outing against Baltimore.

“This is part of the ramp-up of trying to get into midseason form as fast as I can, and the arm just got a little fatigued,” Scherzer said.

“We always check to see how they’re doing the next day, how they came out of it,” Bochy said. “But I think he’s going to be fine.”