Kevin Ng-Imagn Images
As every baseball fan who pays any attention is well aware, Max Scherzer is a little nuts on days when he pitches. Actually, to be honest, he is a complete psycho on those days. That fact was never more evident than during the bottom of the fifth inning of Thursday’s American League Championship Series.
It was during that inning, with two outs and a 5-1 lead, that Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider dared to make a mound visit. Usually, when a manager is the one to visit the mound instead of the pitching coach it means the pitcher’s day is done. Max Scherzer, who was making his 500th career start including the postseason, is well aware of this. And he wasn’t having it. Not one bit.
Good Morning to everyone but especially to future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer 😤 #WANTITALL pic.twitter.com/TjEajeGGTw
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) October 17, 2025
After the game, John Schneider filled the media in on how that fiery conversation with Mad Max went down.
“It was awesome. I thought he was going to kill me. It was great,” Schneider said. “He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out and it’s not fake. That’s the thing. It’s not fake. He has this Mad Max persona, but he backed it up tonight so… the infielders had a good laugh too, out there. And he got the job done.”
Schneider was then asked what exactly was said on the mound during the visit.
“I just said, well, he started the conversation with, ‘I’m good.’ And I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And I can’t really, you can probably read lips, but I told him to execute. ‘I’m leaving you in. I’m leaving you in to execute.’ And he did.”
At another point after the game, Schneider shared, “I tell the starters, if I walk to the mound, you’re coming out. If I jog, you can talk me out of it,” “I started walking. He just went, ‘NO!’ So I proceeded to jog. Before I got there, he goes, ‘I’m good. I’m f—— good!’ I said, ‘Are you? Are you sure?’ And he went, ‘YEAH!’ And I went, you better f—— execute then. And he said, ‘I f—— will!”
John Schneider also joked that, knowing Max Scherzer’s reputation, he’d been eagerly “waiting for that all year, for Max to yell at me on the mound.”
From Scherzer’s perspective, after the game the first question from the media was, naturally, about the mound visit.
“I kind of went, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, I’m not coming out of this ballgame, I feel too good,” Scherzer said. “So uh, we had a little conversation that basically I wanted to stay in the ball game, but just with some other words involved, but, you know, I just knew I was strong. I knew I wanted the ball. I knew I could get outs in this situation and I just wanted to stay in. I wanted it.”