'Funky but good' Scherzer gives Tigers another ace

• Max Scherzer will take the mound for the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 Wednesday
• Scherzer struck out eight and allowed an unearned run in Game 4 of the ALDS against the A's
• Scherzer had been dominating before suffering shoulder weakness on Sept. 18

Max Scherzer says he feels good. He thinks he will pitch better Wednesday night — in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees — than he did during his last outing — in Game 4 of the division series against the Athletics.

Let's remember what Scherzer did a week ago in Oakland. He went 5.1 innings and allowed three hits and a run — it wasn't earned. He struck out eight.

That was Scherzer's first full-start since he suffered shoulder weakness Sept. 18. He got tired in the fifth inning because he'd missed a start working his way back from the injury. Now he's pitching on a regular workload between starts. His stamina is back.

"It's kind of like spring training," he said. "I am building back up."

This should concern the Yankees, because Scherzer was dominant in California before he tired. And it wasn't an anomaly.

Scherzer, a 28-year-old right-hander, gave up seven runs in the seven starts before his injury. He threw six, eight, eight, seven, seven, seven and six innings in those starts. His team won six of those games.

It's not difficult to argue that for stretches of this season Scherzer was Detroit's best pitcher. He doesn't quite have Justin Verlander's curve or 101-mph heater, but he does have a high-90s fastball that darts as it moves across the plate.

"He could strike out more than Justin," said former Tigers ace, Jack Morris, who was at Game 3 to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. "He's got movement. He's funky."

Right now, he's a good kind of funky — last April, not so much.

Scherzer always has had great stuff, even tantalizing stuff, he just has never been able to consistently harness it. When he pitched against the Yankees in New York earlier this season he couldn't get out of the fifth inning. He only gave up three runs, but he yielded seven hits and seven walks. He left after 119 pitches.

He couldn't find the strike zone. Because he couldn't repeat his delivery consistently.

"I think that was the game when I walked seven guys," he said, "that is one of my worst starts of the year..… It was a little bit longer after that when everything seemed to click for me, when I started getting my fastball command back."

Scherzer has been so good since then that he doesn't think that early-season start will give the Yankees a template for tonight's game. Besides, the Yankees are the ones struggling now — at least after they lost a pair over the weekend.

Scherzer expects New York to make adjustments at the plate, as teams do often throughout the season. He in turn will make adjustments to their adjustments.

"Anytime you catch an offense like that where they're searching for adjustments, you kind of know that's going to happen," he said. "It's something new that we have to face.

"It's just going to be which hitters are going to make the biggest adjustment. And the only thing to do is to go out there and pitch your normal game from your standard idea of how you want to attack them and make adjustments. So it is a cat and mouse game."

Scherzer is more adept at making these subtle, in-game changes now. Because he controls his fastball more effectively, he can use his off-speed pitches as part of the repertoire. When Scherzer is really going well the slider is his second-best pitch.

"It's just a development of fine tuning all of my off-speed pitches," he said. "Since they have been more effective, I found more opportunities to use them.

"I think that's just, you know, a credit to working throughout the whole season with (pitching coach) Jeff Jones on fine tuning each pitch in our bullpen (sessions) so that it is more effective during the game."

He will need all of them Wednesday night, when he faces Yankees ace CC Sabathia.

Shawn Windsor also writes for the Detroit Free Press