BOSTON – The latest interruption in Max Scherzer’s stop-and-start season began Monday morning, when the future Hall of Famer woke up with a knot in the left side of his back. He’d thrown a bullpen the day before and felt fine, so he got some treatment on the off-day, played catch as usual on Tuesday, still felt the spasm, woke up Wednesday feeling worse and finally called it. One week after being activated, the 41-year-old was heading right back to the injured list.

“I wasn't progressing, if anything I was going backwards,” a disappointed Scherzer said in the centre of the visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park. “I'm just not in a position to make a start.”

The injury sent the Blue Jays right back onto the roster-churn merry-go-round, with Chad Dallas, scrambled at nearly the last second from triple-A Buffalo on a day he was supposed to follow a rehabbing Shane Bieber, recalled to add some length.

In the short-term, that meant a bullpen game with Braydon Fisher serving as an opener for the fifth........

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