Max Scherzer will no longer make his originally scheduled Sunday start against the Oakland Athletics as he deals with lingering soreness near his back, New York Mets manager Buck Showalter told reporters on Saturday.
Instead, Scherzer will take the ball on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jose Butto, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday afternoon, will start in Scherzer’s place.
‘He had a little lingering soreness from his last start,’ Showalter said. ‘We were going to insert a starter anyway, so we thought we’d get that out of the way altogether.’
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Scherzer told reporters that the soreness is similar to an injury that he faced in 2019 and ‘if you give it a little rest, get out of it, it goes away.’ Showalter said the injury is unrelated to the oblique strain that kept Scherzer out roughly a month and a half and resurfaced late into 2022 season.
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In two starts for Triple-A Syracuse this season, Butto is 1-1 with a 1.86 ERA and eight strikeouts in 9⅔ innings. He was the International Pitcher of the Week between July 3 and 9.
The Mets have won the opening two games of the series against the Athletics, getting solo home runs from Pete Alonso and Mark Canha and a go-ahead RBI double from Brandon Nimmo in a 3-2 win on Saturday.