Another Blue Jays injury scare flares up as Max Scherzer removed early from the game

The madness continues as Mad Max's night was over way earlier than anyone anticipated. After just two innings and 36 pitches, Max Scherzer was removed from his start against the LA Dodgers. The 41-year-old was given the ball to begin Toronto's World Series rematch showdown but after giving up a two-run home run in the first, and then getting through a relatively clean inning in the second, Scherzer did not come out to pitch the third.

Max Scherzer leaves his start against the Dodgers after only two innings and 36 pitches

The Blue Jays have already been dealt a ton of injury issues less than ten games into the season and if Scherzer is lost for a significant amount of time, it furthers stretches their already thin rotation. Toronto lost Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berrios before the season even began. Then in the third inning of his first start, Cody Ponce sprained his ACL and is expected to miss a significant amount of time.

It's not just the pitching staff being ravaged though. The Blue Jays also lost their main catcher, Alejandro Kirk, to a fractured left thumb, and right fielder Addison Barger hurt his ankles while running to first base in Sunday's (Apr. 5) loss.

But the news surrounding Scherzer is especially concerning as Toronto, even without Ponce, looked like they could weather the storm by having Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease and Eric Lauer hold down the fort until they found a replacement for Ponce. Mixed in with some off-days, the Blue Jays could have realistically gone with that four-man rotation for a little while, but there's no way they can only go with three guys, especially since they already had to use a bullpen day while in Chicago thanks to an illness that pushed Lauer's start back by a day.

During the start against the Dodgers, Scherzer's fastball velocity was down from his first start. He threw 28 of his 37 fastballs at 93 mph or faster, while he didn't throw a single fastball at that speed out of the nine he threw in the first inning to LA. So there could be something amiss there. Scherzer dominated the Colorado Rockies in his first start, and had very encouraging results, but those results did not materialize in his second time out.

The Blue Jays turned to Josh Fleming, the former Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander who was just called up earlier in the day to try and give the Blue Jays some length in the game. Fleming has experience at the big league level as both a starter and a reliever, but has been thrust into an almost unwinnable situation against a power house Dodgers club.