NEW YORK — Max Scherzer adjusted his cap, mumbling to himself on the mound, as the initial boos rained down at Citi Field. Before Manny Machado had touched home plate, Mets manager Buck Showalter was halfway from the dugout to the foul line, on his way to remove Scherzer from one of the most confusing starts of his career.
Scherzer handed the ball to Showalter, briefly glanced at the sky, then walked off amid the type of hostile reception he frequently received back when Citi Field was enemy territory.
Scherzer walked down the length of the dugout and immediately into the clubhouse tunnel, not bothering to stop. He had just allowed four home runs and seven earned runs for the first time in his 27 career postseason appearances. His performance had sunk the Mets to a 7-1 loss to the Padres in Wild Card Series Game 1 on Friday, putting them on the brink of elimination despite a regular season that saw them win 101 games.
“Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” Scherzer said. “This is one of the lowest of lows.”
Now, the Mets will look to their other ace, Jacob deGrom, to save their season in Game 2 Saturday.
The odds are not in their favor. MLB has a limited history of three-game playoff series, save for eight such Wild Card series during the expanded 2020 postseason. Six of the eight teams that won Game 1 in those series advanced in two-game sweeps. However, the two clubs that evened things up in Game 2 went on to win Game 3 as well.
To join the latter group, the Mets will need a better start from deGrom than the one they received from Scherzer, who allowed a two-run homer to Josh Bell in the first inning, a solo shot to Trent Grisham in the second, a three -run game-breaker to Jurickson Profar in the fifth, and the solo shot to Machado that ended his night. The performance was reminiscent of Tom Glavine in the final game of the 2007 regular season against the Marlins: a future Hall of Famer booed off his home field.
“This is not a game that you normally see out of Max,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “So we were lucky.”
Afterwards, the natural line of questioning hinged upon whether Scherzer, who took two trips to the injured list this summer due to a left oblique issue, was in any way physically compromised — a question that, in Showalter’s words, is “normal because you ‘ve got a guy that pitches most of the time so well.” Even the manager acknowledged his plan to search for evidence of injury, although Showalter didn’t necessarily expect to find anything.
Scherzer, for his part, insisted upon his health, just as he did on the eve of his start. Rather than focus on his oblique, Scherzer chalked his issues up to a lack of ride on his fastball, which he struggled to explain.
“I don’t know why I didn’t have my good fastball,” Scherzer said. “There were several fastballs I had tonight where the fastball almost looked like it was sinking, versus having a ride. So yeah, this is going to be a late night for me.”
Scherzer’s performance masked other troubling trends for the Mets — most notably an offense that went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and, outside of Eduardo Escobar’s solo homer in the fifth inning, failed to threaten Padres starter Yu Darvish. The 41,621 who packed into Citi Field expressed their displeasure on countless occasions, making enough noise for Darvish to say “it felt like basically someone was screaming into my ears.” But it was easier for them to direct their anger at Scherzer in the game’s most critical moments.
They had trusted Scherzer. They had believed in his legend. Nights like this were why the Mets had signed him to a three-year, $130 million contract this winter, blowing away the previous record for average annual value on a deal. Scherzer was meant to bring stability to the Mets’ rotation, and for much of the regular season, he did.
All winter, all spring, all summer, the Mets dreamed of a time when they could line up Scherzer and deGrom in the playoffs, rendering impotent even the game’s best hitters. Instead, the Mets lost their fourth consecutive postseason game dating to 2015, making it possible that Scherzer’s postseason is already complete.
His opportunity to atone now rests entirely on deGrom, who must win to keep alive the Mets’ season.
“I’m hoping that we can play well and give him a chance to get back out there,” Showalter said. “But it’s going to be up to us starting tomorrow.”
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