Scherzer held out of Game 6 with arm fatigue

Max Scherzer was unable to start Game 6 of the National League Championship Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night because of arm fatigue.

The right-hander was scheduled to start the elimination game on regular rest, but was held back until a potential Game 7, which was dependent on the Dodgers winning Saturday,

Walker Buehler started that must-win game for Los Angeles. He was working on short (three days) rest, after starting Game 3 and giving up seven hits, four runs and two walks in 3 2⁄3 innings.

Scherzer, 37, hasn’t pitched since Game 2 last Sunday when he threw 79 pitches over just 4 ⁄3 innings

1 in a Dodgers loss. After the game, Scherzer said his “arm was dead.” Two days earlier, the right-hander threw 13 pitches to close out Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the San Francisco Giants.

“I could tell when I was warming up that it was still tired,” Scherzer said.

That the Dodgers would ever find themselves without an obvious starter for back-to-back games in October is both a product of injuries — Dustin May underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this season and Clayton Kershaw suffered a flexor strain in late September — and an indictment of their roster construction.

Despite many red flags, the Dodgers committed $102 million to former Cy Young Award winner

Trevor Bauer, who is under investigation in relation to multiple accusations of sexual assault and has been away from the team since those allegations surfaced this summer.

The Dodgers acquired Scherzer, a free agent this winter, from the Washington Nationals at the July 30 trade deadline to bolster the starting rotation.

ALVAREZ OVERCOMES

Two years after winning an AL Rookie of the Year Award, Yordan Alvarez has an AL Championship Series

MVP to add to his trophy case.

The 24-year-old Cuban was 4–for-4 with two doubles and a triple for the Houston Astros in Friday night’s pennantwinning 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

The achievement capped a notable comback for Alvarez, who missed last year’s postseason while recovering from double knee surgery, Alvarez hit an ALCSrecord .522 (12 for 23) with one homer, three doubles, the triple and six RBI in Houston’s sixgame victory. He scored seven runs against the

Red Sox and got nine hits in his last 13 at-bats, raising his postseason average to .441 with two homers and nine RBI.

“I didn’t really imagine myself being able to come out of that surgery on both knees and be able to do this as quickly as I did,” Alvarez said. “So it was really unbelievable for me to be able to come back and do what I did, but just super happy to be here and be able to contribute

like that.”

ELSEWHERE

Rangers: While participating in an MLBsponsored social-media initiative against bullying of LGBTQ teens, the Rangers did not actually acknowledge the specific group Spirit Day was designed to support. The club’s decision frustrated some of the team’s fans inside the LGBTQ community. On Twitter Thursday, all 30 MLB teams made some kind of antibullying statement with a purple logo, in support. In some fashion, 28 of 30 teams explicitly mentioned the LGBTQ community.

A