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)

Iran eased some restrictions on its people and, for the first time in days, allowed them to make phone calls abroad via their mobile phones on Tuesday. It did not ease restrictions on the internet or permit texting services to be restored as the death toll from days of bloody protests against the state rose to at least 2,000 people, according to activists.

Although Iranians were able to call abroad, people outside the country could not call them, several people in the capital told The Associated Press.

The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said SMS text messaging still was down and internet users inside Iran could not access anything abroad, although there were local connections to government-approved websites.

It was unclear if restrictions would ease further after authorities cut off all communications inside the country and to the outside world late Thursday.

Here is the latest:

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years, gave the latest death toll on Tuesday.

It said 1,847 of the dead were protesters and 135 were government-affiliated.

This came a day after the European Parliament announced it would ban Iranian diplomats and representatives.

“Iran does not seek enmity with the EU, but will reciprocate any restriction,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Tuesday.

He also criticized the European Parliament for not taking any significant action against Israel for the more than two-year war in Gaza that has killed more than 71,400 Palestinians, while banning Iranian diplomats after just “a few days of violent riots.”

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said he summoned Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands “to formally protest the excessive violence against peaceful protesters, large-scale arbitrary arrests, and internet shutdowns, calling for immediate restoration of internet access inside the Islamic Republic.

In a post on X, Weel also said the Dutch government supports EU sanctions against “human rights violators in Iran.”

The United Nations human rights chief is calling on Iranian authorities to immediately halt violence and repression against peaceful protesters, citing reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested in a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks.

“The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Tuesday.

Alluding to a wave of protests in Iran in 2022, Türk said demonstrators have sought “fundamental changes” to governance in the country, “and once again, the authorities’ reaction is to inflict brutal force to repress legitimate demands for change.”

“This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue,” he added.

It was also “extremely worrying” to hear some public statements from judicial officials mentioning the prospect of the use of the death penalty against protesters through expedited judicial proceedings, Türk said.

“Iranians have the right to demonstrate peacefully. Their grievances need to be heard and addressed, and not instrumentalized by anyone,” Türk said.

Finland’s foreign minister says she is summoning the Iranian ambassador after authorities in Tehran restricted internet access.

“Iran’s regime has shut down the internet to be able to kill and oppress in silence," Elina Valtonen wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding, “this will not be tolerated. We stand with the people of Iran — women and men alike.”

Finland is “exploring measures to help restore freedom to the Iranian people” together with the European Union, Valtonen said.

Separately, Finnish police said they believe at least two people entered the courtyard of the Iranian embassy in Helsinki without permission Monday afternoon and tore down the Iranian flag. The embassy’s outer wall was also daubed with paint.

Iranian security forces arrested what a state television report described as terrorist groups linked to Israel in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

The report, without providing additional details, said the group entered through Iran’s eastern borders and carried U.S.-made guns and explosives that the group had planned to use in assassinations and acts of sabotage.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the allegations.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate hailed people who have “long warned about this repression, at great personal risk.”

“The protests in Iran cannot be separated from the long-standing, state-imposed restrictions on girls’ and women’s autonomy, in all aspects of public life including education. Iranian girls, like girls everywhere, demand a life with dignity,” Yousafzai wrote on X.

“(Iran’s) future must be driven by the Iranian people, and include the leadership of Iranian women and girls — not external forces or oppressive regimes,” she added.

Yousafzai was awarded the peace prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fight for girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan. She is the youngest Nobel laureate.

The French Foreign Ministry said it has “reconfigured” its embassy in Tehran after reports that the facility's nonessential staff left Iran earlier this week.

The embassy's nonessential staff left the country Sunday and Monday, French news agency Agence France-Presse reported.

The ambassador remained on site and the embassy continued to function, the ministry said late Monday night.

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed from Paris.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believes the Iranian government is in its “final days and weeks,” as he renewed a call for Iranian authorities to end violence against demonstrators immediately.

“If a regime can only keep itself in power by force, then it’s effectively at the end,” Merz said Tuesday during a visit to Bengaluru, India. “I believe we are now seeing the final days and weeks of this regime. In any case, it has no legitimacy through elections in the population. The population is now rising up against this regime.”

Merz said he hoped there is “a possibility to end this conflict peacefully," adding that Germany is in close contact with the U.S. and European governments.

The Israeli military said it continues to be “on alert for surprise scenarios” due to the ongoing protests in Iran, but has not made any changes to guidelines for civilians, as it does prior to a concrete threat.

“The protests in Iran are an internal matter,” Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin wrote on X.

Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear program over the summer, resulting in a 12-day war that killed nearly 1,200 Iranians and almost 30 Israelis. Over the past week, Iran has threatened to attack Israel if Israel or the U.S. attacks.

Mobile phones in Iran were able to call abroad Tuesday after a crackdown on nationwide protests in which the internet and international calls were cut. Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press.

The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back.

Witnesses said the internet remained cut off from the outside world. Iran cut off the internet and calls on Thursday as protests intensified.

This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdownon the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)

This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)

This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)

Protesters hold up placards and flags as they demonstrate outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Shiite Muslims hold placards and chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and show solidarity with Iran in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Activists carrying a photograph of Reza Pahlavi take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

People attend a rally in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)

A picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set alight by protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)