Hard-throwing Scherzer to join Arizona rotation

4/30/2008 7:57 PM

PHOENIX (AP) -Once he made it to the big leagues, Max Scherzer wasted no time in earning a spot in the Arizona Diamondbacks' rotation.

The hard-throwing right-hander will start Monday when Arizona is home against the Philadelphia Phillies, Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said before Wednesday's game against Houston.

Scherzer will take Edgar Gonzalez's spot. Gonzalez will go to the bullpen.

Melvin said the decision was ``based on some pretty good results that we saw.''

Scherzer, 23, made his major league debut in relief of Gonzalez against Houston on Tuesday night, retiring all 13 batters he faced, seven by strikeout. His fastball was consistently in the 95-97 mph range and hit 98 mph on one occasion.

``We stretched him out yesterday and we saw exactly what they saw in Triple-A and what we saw in spring training,'' Melvin said. ``Being that he was in a starting role and had the kind of success he did, it made sense to start him.''

Scherzer had no decisions in four starts with Triple-A Tucson, but the rest of his statistics were impressive. He had a 1.17 ERA, allowing three earned runs in 23 innings. He struck out 38 and walked three.

Scherzer was Arizona's first-round draft pick out of the University of Missouri in 2006, the 11th choice overall. He split last season with Class A Visalia and Double-A Mobile.

``I'm really happy that I've been given the opportunity to be in the rotation and get some more wins for this team,'' he said.

He said it made no difference to him whether he was a starter or reliever.

``As long as I'm pitching and I have the ball,'' Scherzer said, ``I'm happy.''