ARLINGTON, Texas – Before last week, Max Scherzer had never faced Shohei Ohtani. The 16-year veteran, most often mentioned alongside either his certain eventual induction into the Hall of Fame or his snarling intensity emanating from the mound in the meantime, stared down 1,214 batters before baseball finally brought the better-than-the-Babe icon of a new era into the box against him.
Scherzer, naturally, relished the opportunity.
“I want to face the best guys in the league,” he said later. “It's fun to face guys like that. I mean, it's an absolute challenge. You’ve got to be on every single pitch.