TORONTO — As Maxwell Scherzer readies for the first start of his 19th big-league season Tuesday night versus the visiting Colorado Rockies, the sting from his last outing at Rogers Centre — Game 7 against the Los Angeles Dodgers — still lingers.

“You never get over it. Not that one. Nor should we. That's how important winning a World Series is to all of us,” Scherzer said in an interview ahead of Tuesday's game (Sportsnet, Sportsnet , 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT). “You make all the sacrifices in the world, you work so hard to get here to have that one opportunity. To be that close and not get it, I don't see how I'm ever going to get over that one. And good. You don't want me to be able to get over it. Like, why would you want a player to be over it?”

Those sentiments demonstrate how deeply the competitive fires still burn for the 41-year-old, who re-signed on March 2 with the Toronto Blue Jays for a second season. Scherzer, who allowed one run in 4.1 innings in Game 7 and left up 3-1 in the eventual 5-4, 11-inning loss, described the post-season run as “the highest level of baseball you can possibly play,” and believed “once you get that taste in your mouth … you understand that's the standard.”

Still, there are no comforts around not finishing the job, because “for some of the guys, it would have been their first World Series, their first moment having that, and I know, for me personally, how........

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