Playoff Max Scherzer did not come as advertised.

Scherzer, the pitcher the Mets signed to a three-year, $130 million contract for situations like the one he faced Friday night at Citi Field, allowed four home runs in less than five innings of work to the San Diego Padres. In the Mets’ first playoff game since 2016, the future hall-of-fame ace was booed off of his own home field as the Mets lost 7-1 in Game 1 of their NL Wild Card series.

“Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” Scherzer said. “And this is one of the lowest of lows.”

While Scherzer didn’t exactly live up to his billing, the Mets’ offense didn’t either, leaving a crowd of 41,621 dejected and distraught.

Here we go again, after two weeks of wondering what’s wrong with the Mets’ bats and why they struggled to drive in runners on base. The Mets had runners on third base with only one out in the first and second innings, with two outs in the fifth and again in the ninth, but failed to capitalize, stranding eight runners.

They were aggressive on the basepaths against Yu Darvish, which clearly bothered the veteran right-hander. But Darvish pitched like an ace, holding the Mets to just one run on six hits over seven innings.

“I know the Padres made it look easy tonight, but it’s not,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “The pitchers are very in tune with themselves and what they’re controlling, and they’re not just going to throw something because that’s what they’re supposed to throw. They’re only going to go with what they believe in right now.

“Are we frustrated with the loss? Yes, but we know this offense can score runs.”

That one run came from Eduardo Escobar, their most consistent hitter over the last month when he launched a solo shot off of Darvish in the fifth to cut the Padres’ lead to 7-1. It was his first career postseason homer, but it wasn’t much to celebrate.

The damage had already been done.

Down 3-0, Scherzer was cooked in the fifth inning when he gave up a leadoff single and a one-out double to the bottom of the order. Jurickson Profar took him back to the right field wall and barely stayed fair for a three-run home run. Manny Machado hit the second of the inning two batters later to chase him from the game.

“From watching the film and just watching how they were able to take swings, my fastball was running on me,” Scherzer said. “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.”

Scherzer had only allowed four home runs in the nine previous postseason appearances before his first with the Mets on Friday. He allowed four home runs in Game 1 without even finishing the fifth inning, including one to Trent Grisham, who hit just .184 on the season. The home-run ball has been a problem for Scherzer over the last three starts, but not like this. He allowed three of them in his previous two regular-season starts against the Oakland A’s and Atlanta Braves, but through July and August combined, Scherzer had only allowed four total.

Maybe it was just the opponent — the last time he gave up seven earned runs in a single outing was July 8, 2021, also against the Padres. It was a career-worst mark then and it still is now.

But this outing naturally leads to a question that no player wants to answer in the postseason: Is he healthy? He missed time twice this season for an oblique injury, though he downplayed concerns about it in a loss to the Braves six days prior. Scherzer said he felt good on the mound and that there was no concern for injury, but the only thing that will stop the questions is a different result.“I know what I need to do to be successful,” Scherzer said. “If I get another shot to pitch, yeah, I know what I need to do.”

It was a stunningly bad performance from a team that won 101 games on the season. The Mets will have one more chance to extend their postseason run Saturday with Jacob deGrom on the mound.

“My money’s on Max and on figuring it out, and Jake and hopefully [Chris Bassitt],” manager Buck Showalter said. “If we can get there.”