Max Scherzer gives Mets the minimum in biggest start of the season
Max Scherzer’s introductory press conference now feels like a distant memory from a completely different era, one that took place on a planet brutally destroyed by the San Diego Padres on Friday night.
“For me, the pressure of this is a privilege, it’s not a problem,” Scherzer said back on Dec. 1, a goofy smile affixed to his face and mega agent Scott Boras sitting beside him. “So I really enjoy being where you’re expected to win. The Mets fans, they’ve got a nice blue-collar approach, they really let you have it.”
Scherzer’s first postseason start as a Met ended with those fans mercilessly letting him have it. An orchestra of boos fell from the rafters, all of them aimed at the pitcher with the $43.3 million salary. When it was finally time to go get him in the fifth inning, manager Buck Showalter shot out of the dugout faster than Manny Machado’s line drive home run cleared the left field wall. That Machado blast made the score 7-0, all of the runs charged to Scherzer, giving both the Mets and their fans that familiar pit in their stomach.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” Scherzer said from the postgame podium, his mismatched eyes holding a thousand-yard stare. “Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and this is one of the lowest of lows.”
Friday nights at Citi Field this season have come with a theme. The club stations a DJ in center field (who was also booed once the score got out of hand) to remix jock jams with plastic Top 40 pop, and the Mets wear their sleek black uniforms.
They — somewhat strangely, as the events always seemed better suited for games against the Nationals or Marlins that needed an attendance bump — continued that tradition for their first playoff game in six years. Almost immediately, the black jerseys took on a funeral feeling.
The very first pitch out of Scherzer’s hand became a single for Padres’ leadoff man Jurickson Profar. Three batters later, Josh Bell slapped a no-doubt, opposite-field home run to immediately take the sellout crowd at Citi Field out of the game. Scherzer needed 20 pitches to get through the first inning (against the worst offense in the National League playoff bracket, no less) and it didn’t get much better in the second inning.
San Diego center fielder Trent Grisham had a miserable .341 slugging percentage this season. By wRC+, he was the third-worst qualified hitter in the National League. But most MLB hitters can handle a 94-mile-per-hour fastball over the heart of the plate, which is exactly what Grisham got.
He put that ball over the wall to extend the Padres’ lead to three. Even though it was just the second inning, if you gave everyone in attendance a dose of truth serum, they’d tell you that they knew the game was over right then and there.
“It’s going to be a late night for me,” said Scherzer, who was adamant about the fact that he felt physically fine. “I can make adjustments, come back and attack. I know what I need to do to be successful. If I get another shot to pitch, yeah, I know what I need to do.”
After two painless innings in the third and fourth — which, unfortunately for the Mets, were matched by Padres’ starter Yu Darvish — Scherzer’s outing reached catastrophic levels in the fifth. Ha-Seong Kim led off with a single, Austin Nola moved him to third with a one-out double, and then Profar struck again.
The 29-year-old switch hitter has owned the Mets all season. He posted a .364 average and 1.072 OPS in the six-game season series. With two men on base for him in the fifth, his Padres already up by three, Profar doubled their lead with a home run that rattled off the right field foul pole. Machado’s dagger came six pitches later.
Friday night marked the first time all season that Scherzer failed to finish five innings. The seven earned runs were also the most he’d ever given up as a Met, surpassing his previous season-high of four. Scherzer only got two whiffs on his fastball, gave up an astounding four homers and stood powerlessly as the Padres stung nine balls at 95 miles per hour or harder.
“I didn’t have a good fastball location,” Scherzer assessed. “From watching the film and just watching how they were able to take swings, my fastball was running on me. I wasn’t able to command that fastball the way I usually can. That’s my bread and butter to be able to set up everything else.”
It was, without question, the worst day of Scherzer’s life as a Met. At least it didn’t happen in a big game or anything.
