Turner trolls Scherzer with challenge of down-the-middle 1st pitch

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Somebody bet Trea Turner during stretches -- it might have been Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott -- that he would not challenge Max Scherzer¡¯s first pitch in Sunday afternoon¡¯s Grapefruit League game at TD Ballpark.

Challenge accepted.

¡°That¡¯s a great idea,¡± Turner said. ¡°I¡¯ll do that.¡±

Challenge made.

¡°Nobody believed I was going to do it,¡± Turner said. ¡°So I said, ¡®Why not? I don¡¯t care.¡¯¡±

Scherzer said last week, ¡°Can¡¯t we just be judged by humans?¡± when asked about Major League Baseball¡¯s ABS challenge system, which is being used in a trial run this spring in Arizona and Florida. Turner read Scherzer¡¯s quote, so he happily trolled his former Nationals teammate about it.

¡°I was hoping the pitch would be right down the middle,¡± Turner said.

It wasn¡¯t over the heart of the plate, but it was an obvious strike. Turner tapped the top of his helmet to initiate the challenge anyway.

At first, Scherzer looked confused.

¡°I don¡¯t think he realized that I challenged it,¡± Turner said. ¡°And then we were just laughing. It was good. In the regular season, it would really piss him off. But now he's kind of faking his little act. But I knew. I just wanted to see his eyes roll. That's what I was going for.¡±

Turner lost the challenge, obviously.

¡°Just some good heat going on behind the scenes there,¡± Scherzer said. ¡°Trea and I, we¡¯re good friends, so we¡¯ll have a laugh.

¡°They¡¯re just messing with me. There was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes there. I can¡¯t take these at-bats seriously. These are practice games going against good friends of mine. Too many good stories together and Trea is obviously one of my favorite teammates of all time.¡±

Phillies manager Rob Thomson wasn¡¯t keen on the joke. He said when camp opened that he told players fighting for jobs to challenge balls and strikes because one at-bat or pitch could potentially make the difference in making the team or not.

¡°The guys that are trying to impress the front office, first-time guys here, guys that are trying to make the ballclub, we¡¯ve got a couple open spots ¡­¡± Thomson said.

Turner popped out to second base to end the at-bat. Scherzer and Turner exchanged a few words as Turner jogged past the mound.

¡°I was talking to him about something, but not the challenge,¡± Turner said.

Meanwhile, Scherzer had his own pregame shenanigans going on. He requested the Blue Jays play Stott¡¯s walk-up song ¡°A-OK¡± before his at-bats.

Stott is 8-for-13 with a double in his career against Scherzer.

¡°Yeah,¡± Stott said. ¡°I hit him good, so he wanted to make me feel good.¡±

MLB.com Blue Jays reporter Keegan Matheson contributed to this story.