Blue Jays' Max Scherzer gets second World Series Game 7 start after Dodgers force winner-take-all

TORONTO (AP) — Max Scherzer is about to become the only living pitcher to start two winner-take-all Game 7s in the World Series.

Baseball will have its ultimate finale Saturday night when Scherzer and the Toronto Blue Jays play the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are trying to become the first team to win consecutive titles since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees won three in row.

Los Angeles had been expected to start Tyler Glasnow before he closed out a 3-1 victory in Game 6. The 6-foot-8 right-hander is likely still available, but manager Dave Roberts could also start Shohei Ohtani for two-to-four innings on three days' rest — which the two-way star has not done since coming to Major League Baseball in 2018.

“They are all possibilities,” Roberts said. “This is Game 7, so there’s a lot of things that people haven’t done.”

Scherzer also started the last World Series Game 7 in 2019, boosted by a cortisone injection for an irritated nerve near his neck. Mad Max didn't have a clean inning and left after five trailing by two runs before his Washington Nationals rallied to win 6-2 in Houston.

Only Bob Gibson (1964, ‘67, ’68) and Lew Burdette and Don Larsen (both 1957 and ‘58) have started multiple winner-take-all Game 7s in the World Series. Burleigh Grimes started Game 7 in 1920 and ’31, but his first was in a year the Series was best-of-nine.

Toronto gave Scherzer, 41, a $15.5 million, one-year contract. The three-time Cy Young Award winner picked his destination hoping to win a third World Series ring, after titles with Washington in 2019 and Texas in 2023. The 18-year big league veteran has eagerly shared his experience with the Blue Jays.

“He’s not afraid to question baserunning, question defense, question offense. He still thinks he’s our best baserunner on the team from his days with the Nationals,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Friday. “He’s not afraid to push the envelope. He’s not afraid to be curious. He’s not afraid to share things that he’s been through that maybe I haven’t been through.”

“There’s a lot of teams that don’t like Max Scherzers just because he questions everything," teammate Chris Bassitt added. "He wants to know every little detail, from outfield positioning to why you’re throwing this pitch to who is playing here to how we control off days.

"So many organizations, I feel like, don’t like to answer questions. They like you to be a robot and say, yes sir, and go about your business.”

Scherzer went 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in 17 starts this season. The eight-time All-Star didn’t pitch between March 29 and June 25 because of right thumb inflammation, then was left off Toronto’s roster for the first round of the playoffs after he went 0-3 in his last five starts, bothered by neck pain.

He turned back the clock during the American League Championship Series, winning Game 4 against Seattle after shouting down Schneider during a mound visit.

“No better guy to have on the mound to kind of navigate the emotions, the stuff,” Schneider said. “Max has been getting ready for Game 7 when he knew he was pitching Game 3.”

Bassitt was asked by Toronto to assist in recruiting Scherzer, a teammate on the 2022 New York Mets, and praised general manager Ross Atkins for making the move.

“I told Ross: This was going to be a headache for you, having Max Scherzer. And then I told the pitching staff about him, and I told the coaching staff, like: This is a guy that’s going to stir a lot of pots," Bassitt said. “So everyone looked at Max, the 41-year-old that might end up on the IL a couple times, and they don’t understand the true value of having that veteran guy that knows what it takes to win, and then he might teach you a thing or two along the way, too.”

Glasnow got three outs on three pitches to save Game 6. After Roki Sasaki was removed with runners at second and third with no outs in the ninth, Glasnow popped up Ernie Clement on his first pitch, then Andrés Giménez hit a liner to left fielder Kiké Hernández, who caught it and doubled off Addison Barger at second base.

Glasnow, acquired from Tampa Bay in December 2023, was sidelined between April 27 and July 9 by right shoulder inflammation. The 32-year-old right-hander has a 1.42 ERA in three starts and two relief outings this postseason.

Toronto will be playing a World Series Game 7 for the first time — the Blue Jays won their only championships in six games in both 1992 and ’93.

The LA Dodgers won their only Series Game 7 at Minnesota in 1965 when Sandy Koufax pitched a three-hit shutout on two days' rest after his four-hit shutout won Game 5. They lost Game 7 at home to Houston in 2017. Going back, the Brooklyn Dodgers lost Game 7 to the Yankees in 1947, ‘52 and ’56, and beat the Yankees in Game 7 in 1955.

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Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer delivers against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series in Los Angeles, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer warms up during practice ahead of game 6 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer leaves the game during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Toronto Blue Jays' Max Scherzer (31) looks on before batting practice Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in Toronto, ahead of Sunday's Game 6 in baseball's American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report is leading technology stocks higher Friday, while oil prices keep swinging in the wait for what’s next with the Iran war.

The S&P 500 added 0.4% and inched above its all-time high set on Wednesday, even though the majority stocks within the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 168 points, or 0.3%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Intel led the way and is potentially heading for its best day since 1987. It jumped 23.8% after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel’s chips and products, and the company’s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts’ estimates.

Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped more than 12% in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.

A ceasefire is tenuously in place between the two, but tensions between them are still keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. Oil prices climbed this week on worries about the strait, but a potentially encouraging signal came Friday after Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was heading to Pakistan for talks.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June yo-yoed between roughly $103 and $107 in the morning and most recently was down less than 0.1% at $105.04. The price for Brent delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the market, fell 0.4% to $98.96.

On Wall Street, Procter & Gamble rose 3.9% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said it saw broad-based growth across regions and products, which include Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent.

That helped offset a drop of 22.5% for Charter Communications, whose profit for the latest quarter came in weaker than analysts expected. It lost 120,000 internet customers during the three months, more than some analysts expected.

Hartford Insurance Group fell 1% after reporting profit growth for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report said sentiment among U.S. consumers remains sour. A survey by the University of Michigan found weaker sentiment in April across political party, income, age, and education, though it improved a bit after the ceasefire in the war with Iran was announced earlier in the month.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.30% from 4.34% late Thursday.

Investors are also betting again on the possibility that the Federal Reserve could resume its cuts to interest rates later this year. The path appeared to clear Friday for President Donald Trump's nominee to chair the Fed, Kevin Warsh, after the U.S. Justice Department ended its probe into the Fed's current chair, Jerome Powell.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation. Warsh is the choice of Trump, who has been arguing loudly for lower interest rates.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Options trader Matthew Hefter, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist John Parisi works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A board above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange displays the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)