Mets ace unloads on MLB's pitch clock again

New York Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer blasted MLB's pitch clock again following his outing against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.

According to a report by Tim Britton of The Athletic, Scherzer was upset Thursday after he wasn't allowed to throw his normal number of warmup pitches prior to an inning.

"You’re supposed to get eight warmup pitches, and I had seven. I asked (home-plate umpire Tripp Gibson) if I could have the eighth pitch. Can I do my normal routine to warm up? And he’s telling me, ‘It’s the clock, it’s the clock,'" Scherzer said, per Britton. "That's what’s so frustrating. Look, I’m doing my normal routine. Why do we need to step through the game and have the umpires change routines when it’s not my fault for what’s going on here? I’m talking to Tripp, and he’s sitting here saying he can’t do anything about it. If he lets me throw the pitch, MLB gets mad at him."

Despite his complaints, Scherzer actually had his best game of the season on Thursday, dominating a powerful Phillies lineup to the tune of a season-high nine strikeouts against just one walk over seven innings, while allowing just two runs (one earned) on five hits. It was the second straight outing where Scherzer went a season-high seven innings and second consecutive appearance he threw more than 100 pitches (the only two times this year), tossing 101 pitches, 71 of which were strikes.

Still, the eight-time All-Star couldn't go without airing his concerns.

"This goes back to, why do we need a pitch clock for that situation? If I throw one more pitch, what is it, one second slower?" Scherzer said. "Why can’t the umpire have discretion in that situation, to allow a pitcher to throw his eighth, normal warmup pitch? Why do we have to be so anal about this to have a clock shoved in everybody’s face to snuff out every single second that’s going through the game?"

Scherzer added that "situations like that" are "really frustrating" for not only pitchers and batters, but the umpires as well, opining that the men in blue are "handcuffed" by the circumstance.

While the three-time Cy Young Award winner's season-long numbers are now a bit more Scherzer-esque at 5-2 with a 3.21 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 48 strikeouts over nine starts, it's been a bumpy start to his second season in Queens.

Amid his 10-game suspension for using too much "sticky stuff" and his neck spasms in May, Scherzer's ERA was sitting at 5.56 just less than one month ago. He only pitched twice between April 19 and May 21 due to the suspension and injury, and one of the outings was a clunker against his old team (the Detroit Tigers) when he surrendered a season-high six runs (all earned) on eight hits across just 3 1/3 innings.

Since then, he's allowed only four runs (three earned) on 16 hits to go with 28 strikeouts against four walks in 25 innings covering four starts.

Scherzer was one of the first big-name MLB pitchers to see a pitch clock violation go against him in spring training. That violation wiped out a would-be double play during an early-March exhibition contest against the Washington Nationals. In May, the righty went off on the institution of the pitch clock, predicting that it would lead to an "injury bug."

Scherzer's next start will likely come next week on the road against the division-rival Atlanta Braves.