Max Scherzer, Joe Girardi and the fastball at the center of MLB’s messy sticky stuff drama

“That pitch specifically is the pitch I fear the most,” Scherzer, who is 36 years old and an influential member of the players’ union, said of the high-and-tight fastball that almost hit Bohm. “I don’t want to throw that pitch. I never want to throw a ball near somebody’s head. And tonight . . . in the previous at-bat, I was able to get a fastball by him on an inside fastball, and I was literally trying to throw the same exact pitch, and it just slips out of my hand and it ends up near his face.