Trea Turner Admits to Trolling Ex-Teammate Max Scherzer With First Pitch Challenge

The Phillies shortstop had some fun with the Blue Jays pitcher.

Trea Turner during the Phillies' 7–6 win over the Mets in Game 2 of the NLDS on Oct. 6, 2024. | Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

Once upon a time, Philadelphia Phillies shortstop and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer were teammates rather than adversaries—first on the Washington Nationals from 2015 to '21, and then on the Los Angeles Dodgers late in '21.

The distance separating them now, however, doesn't mean one can't have a little fun with the other from time to time—as Turner did with Scherzer Sunday.

Stepping in to take the first at-bat of the Phillies' eventual 5–4 loss to the Blue Jays, Turner used MLB's automated ball-strike system to challenge a crystal-clear strike thrown by Scherzer (Scherzer recently criticized the much-ballyhooed experimental technology).

“I don’t think he realized that I challenged it,” Turner said via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. “And then we were just laughing. It was good. In the regular season, it would really piss him off. But now he's kind of faking his little act. But I knew. I just wanted to see his eyes roll. That's what I was going for.”

In a sense, Scherzer had the last laugh; Turner finished 0-for-3 in defeat.

---