I really don’t see much of any scenario where the Scheer could beat the Baltimore one on one other than everyone on the Baltimore just being asleep and not manning the guns.
The Baltimore, with the superior speed could choose the range of the engagement and the duration of the engagement… she was better armored and compartmentalized than the Scheer… simply put, she was a better ship in every aspect other than gun caliber. The Baltimores had far more modern armament well directed and fast loading, and could run circles in speed around the far slower Admiral Scheer. “Pocket Battleships” were designed when the German Kriegsmarine couldn’t have proper battleships, so they went with essentially a cruiser design that was able to outgun cruisers of its time and outrun battleships of its time… having said that, battleships of its time were of the 20-knot variety and cruisers of its time didn’t carry anywhere near the armament that the far more modern Baltimores had.
