NEW YORK (AP) — Max Scherzer is scheduled to return to the New York Mets’ rotation Tuesday in Cincinnati after missing over a month with a strained left oblique muscle.
Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, has been sidelined since straining his oblique while pitching against St. Louis on May 18.
“If you look at the timeframe of this injury over the course of a lot of history, you look at other people with this injury and what’s the usual timeline, he’s met all the criteria,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. Friday.
Scherzer made a pair of rehab starts for the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies and threw 80 pitches Wednesday against the Hartford Yard Goats. The right-hander allowed three runs — two earned — and four hits in 4 2/3 innings, striking out eight and walking one.
“I have a much better grasp on what this is,” Scherzer said Friday. “I definitely crossed that six week timeline so you feel a lot more confident. You feel it’s starting to get in my rearviewmirror.”
Scherzer also threw 65 pitches on June 20 for Binghamton against Reading, allowing two runs and three hits in 3 1/3 innings with six strikeouts and a walk.
After signing a $130 million, three-year contract, baseball’s highest average salary, Scherzer is 6-2 with a 2.54 ERA in eight starts during his first season with the Mets.
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