Max Scherzer bends but never breaks against Padres

Max Scherzer had thrown batting practice to the Padres in Game 1 of the NL wild-card round at Citi Field, serving up four homers and setting a Mets record that he happily would have thrown back if he could — most runs allowed in a postseason game.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner yielded seven in the worst postseason outing of his distinguished career. He walked off after 4 2/3 with boos ringing in his ears that night last October. Yu Darvish, on the other hand, dominated as the starter and winner.

Now, it was Scherzer vs. Darvish and the Mets vs. the Padres in Monday night’s opener of a three-game April rematch in Queens after San Diego KO’d the Mets in three when it counted the most.

“Just knowing him, how he prepares, he’s always ready,” Pete Alonso said of Scherzer.

After stepping up on the mound with a 6.35 ERA to show for his first two outings, Scherzer needed a good start more than revenge before people started tossing his age at him and the questions began. The Mets are counting rather heavily on him, too.

The 38-year-old righthander didn’t bring his best command. But there will be no questions. 

Scherzer went to eight full counts and threw 97 pitches over five innings. Yet he made big pitches, walking just three, striking out six and allowing no runs and just one hit to the Padres.

The Mets tossed away a 101-win season after they didn’t hit much and failed to get good starting pitching in two of the three playoff games, dropping Game 1, 7-1, and falling in Game 3, 6-0.

“I think playing those high-leverage games, the more experience you have, I think that it’s definitely beneficial to be in that spot before,” Alonso said. “… We’re just trying to get back [to the playoffs] and make it further than we did in 2022.”

An effective Scherzer is crucial to the cause.

Scherzer earned a 5-3 victory in his Opening Day start at Miami. He pitched five shutout innings, then allowed the Marlins to tie it with three runs in the sixth, the last two on a homer.

Then the Brewers got to him for back-to-back-to-back homers in a three-run sixth last Tuesday in Milwaukee. Scherzer allowed five runs and eight hits and struck out just two over 5 1/3 in what became a 9-0 trouncing.  

The Padres presented him with a problem in the first inning of start No. 3, drawing a pair of full-count walks around a Manny Machado strikeout. But Scherzer got Xander Bogaerts to ground into a double play.

Scherzer’s second inning went 1-2-3, and it featured two more Ks, including Ha-Seong Kim looking at a fastball on the inside corner to end it.

The third inning began with a full-count walk by Scherzer to Rougned Odor. Tomas Nido fired a pick-off try into right, so Odor moved to second. A full-count groundout moved him to third. But then Scherzer got Trent Grisham looking at a fastball and got Machado to pop to third on a 3-and-2 fastball.

So after three, Scherzer had allowed no runs, no hits and three walks, going to full counts six times and throwing 64 pitches, just 37 for strikes.

A 1-2-3 fourth followed.

San Diego finally managed to get a hit with one out in the fifth when Kim lined a slider into left-center for a single. Scherzer went full on Austin Nola with two outs, then got him swinging at a fastball to end his outing. 

Twenty-four of Scherzer’s last 33 pitches went for strikes, and he departed with a 2-0 lead.