Max Scherzer leads Mets over Phillies for second win of road trip
Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Chris Szagola
PHILADELPHIA — Vehement about wanting the next inning, Max Scherzer had to convince his manager, Buck Showalter, who wasn’t so sure.
Scherzer had just returned to the dugout after the fifth inning of the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Phillies on Saturday, already at 94 pitches and having just allowed the tying run to score. Showalter, who had a reliever warming during the inning, followed him for just a couple of steps as Scherzer made his point by, well, pointing. And yelling.
“I wish everybody could be privy to some of the conversations, like after the fifth,” Showalter said.
Scherzer stated his case: It was hot out, so generating velocity with his fastball felt easier than usual. So really it was as if he had thrown 85 pitches, he said — plenty of wiggle room.
Showalter shared that Scherzer knew what he physically had left to give, who was about to bat, how he would pitch them, his approach against them last time and what they would look for this time.
Showalter called it a “tough decision.”
“We kind of came to a semi-agreement,” he said.
Scherzer would be allowed to start the sixth, but he would face only three hitters, then get pulled.
Scherzer accepted and pitched the whole frame. Bryson Stott collected a one-out single, but Alec Bohm grounded into a double play as Scherzer threw 13 pitches to finish at a season-high 107.
“He doesn’t let his emotions get in the way of giving his team the best chance to win,” Showalter said. “More times than not, it’s with him pitching.”
Scherzer said: “I was absolutely convinced that I was going to be able to go out there in the sixth and be at my best.”
All the Mets needed to earn their second win of this weeklong road trip, which ends Sunday, was for Scherzer to pitch well for the second time this road trip. He struck out eight in six innings and allowed two runs, seven hits and one walk.
After Scherzer helped the Mets (35-41) top the Astros on Monday, he looked locked in again early against the Phillies (39-37), retiring nine of the first 11 batters.
Nick Castellanos homered in the fourth inning and Trea Turner tied it with an RBI single in the fifth, but Scherzer bounced back.
The Mets parlayed that effort with David Robertson’s five-out save and Starling Marte’s 2-for-4 day to snap a three-game losing streak. Marte homered in the first and singled and scored in the Mets’ two-run sixth.
Luis Guillorme went 2-for-3 with a triple and Brandon Nimmo was 2-for-4 with an RBI single.
Phillies lefthander Cristopher Sanchez allowed three runs in five innings and was removed after Nimmo singled to begin the sixth.
Showalter called on Robertson to bail the Mets out of Adam Ottavino’s two-on, one-out jam in the eighth inning. Robertson responded by getting Stott to ground into an inning-ending double play.
After Brandon Marsh’s one-out single in the ninth, Robertson got Josh Harrison to ground into a game-ending double play. Robertson needed only 13 pitches to get the final five outs.
“It’s, like, the greatest day of my life, to be honest with you,” he joked. “I don’t think I’ve ever had two double plays in a game. Not even in high school.
“I was trying to get a strikeout [of Stott in the eighth]. That’s tough,” Robertson added. “I think it’s the third time I’ve faced him this year. He’s really good at putting the bat to the ball. He’s seen everything I’ve got, so it’s just a matter of trying to get soft contact — but I was not looking for soft contact.”
He got it anyway.
“I threw a curveball trying for a strikeout and just got lucky,” Robertson said. “It was right where it needed to go.”
In Sunday’s finale, the Mets will have a chance to win a series, something they haven’t done since June 1, when they swept the Phillies at Citi Field. As Robertson put it, “it’s been a minute, so it would be nice for us to get one.” Carlos Carrasco will face ex-Met Zack Wheeler.
For the Mets, another somebody rising to the occasion the way Scherzer did would help.
“He invites the moment,” Showalter said. “He knows what trying to win a baseball game today can mean. Every day you hope is the start of something bigger and better.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
