Multi-Time Cy Young Winner Max Scherzer had a historically bad start against the Kansas City Royals on Friday

A day after future National Baseball Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw announced he would retire at the end of this season Thursday, another future Hall of Famer of Kershaw's generation took the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Kansas City Royals.

Three-time Cy Young winner and eight-time All-Star Max Scherzer starter for the Blue Jays in a 20-1 loss against the Royals on Friday at Kauffman Stadium.

Scherzer, who's nearing the end of his 18th season in the majors, struck out two, walked one and allowed seven earned runs on seven hits (two home runs) in 0.2 innings against Kansas City. And that outing put him in an unfortunate category in Toronto history.

According to a post on "X" from StatsCentre, Scherzer's seven earned runs allowed is tied for the most allowed in Blue Jays history for pitchers who've thrown less than an inning.

Other hurlers included in that list are: Tom Candiotti (Sept. 23, 1991); Joey Hamilton (Aug. 14, 1999); Matthew Boyd (July 2, 2015); Glenn Sparkman (July 9, 2017) and Edwin Jackson (June 17, 2019).

Scherzer, who signed a one-year, $15.5 million contract with Toronto in the offseason, hasn't had the year him or the franchise would have wanted.

The two-time World Series champion missed nearly three months of action from March 30-June 25 with right thumb inflammation. He's made 16 starts this season and has posted a 5.06 ERA with 77 strikeouts in 80 innings pitched after his ill-fated outing against Kansas City.

If Scherzer's season were to end today, his ERA would be a career-high. His previous career-worst mark in that statistic was with the Detroit Tigers in 2011 — his fourth year in the majors. Scherzer had a 4.43 ERA and fanned 174 batters in 195 innings pitched across 33 starts that season.

Before this year, Scherzer hadn't finished the season with an ERA above 4.00 since 2011.

Scherzer's three Cy Young awards came in 2013, '16 and '17. His first win came with the Tigers and his last two came with the Washington Nationals. He made seven-straight All-Star games from 2013-19 and made another one in '21. He has a career ERA of 3.21 and has struck out 3,484 batters in his career.

With his struggles this season, and the fact he'll be entering his 19th professional season in 2026, there's question as to what Scherzer's future will be. He's projected to have a market value of one-year, $9.5 million contract in free agency, according to Spotrac.