Wheels fall off Subway Series opener for Mets
Max Scherzer #21 of the Mets hands the ball to manager Buck Showalter #11 as he leaves a game against the Yankees in the fourth inning at Citi Field on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Since the modern rebirth of the Subway Series in 1997, the Yankees have been the team with everything to lose, from a reputation standpoint.
But that’s not the case this week. The Mets had something way more tangible than pride at stake, and what they lost during Tuesday night’s 7-6 defeat will have a lasting impact beyond the immediate dip in the standings.
We’ll start with the team’s fractured faith in Max Scherzer, whose impressive five-start rebound (3-0, 2.35 ERA) came to a crashing halt. Scherzer couldn’t protect a 5-1 lead and had to be pulled during the Yankees’ five-run fourth inning, when he walked off the mound to loud boos from the crowd of 43,707 at Citi Field.
Ultimately, this Subway Series is going to be a referendum on what the Mets were built on: their pair of three-time Cy Young winners, Scherzer and Justin Verlander, the two highest-paid pitchers in baseball at $43 million apiece. The early returns Tuesday were downright disturbing, as Scherzer allowed six earned runs -- including homers to Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu -- over 3 1/3 innings.
As Scherzer crumbled in that ugly fourth, he retired only one of the seven Yankees he faced. The primary culprit was his errant slider, the pitch that betrayed him all night. LeMahieu drilled an 0-and-1 slider for his two-run homer, and struggling rookie Anthony Volpe — batting .186 — pulled an 0-and-2 slider over the third-base bag for an RBI double. Afterward, Scherzer had difficulty explaining what caused the rare glitch on that particular weapon of his varied arsenal.
“This is simple — I struggled with my slider,” said Scherzer, whose season ERA ballooned to 4.45. “Every time I was throwing my slider, it was hanging. It wasn’t executed the way I need to, especially with two strikes. I was not getting the pitch in the locations I wanted to, no matter what my thought process was with it.
“I’ve pitched long enough to know I can throw a good slider. You don’t just start getting scared of your pitches ... I can’t remember the last time I was hanging that many sliders.”
As bad as that was, at least Scherzer gets a shot at redemption in five days. The same can’t be said for reliever Drew Smith, who didn’t even throw a pitch before he was ejected for his hands being too sticky and now faces an automatic 10-game suspension for the violation.
Smith was called in to open the seventh inning but failed the umpire’s inspection, much to the Mets’ disbelief. Not only will they now be without one of their best relief pitchers for the next 10 games, they’re down a roster spot, forced to play short-handed during that period.
Incredibly, Smith joins Scherzer as two of only three pitchers banned for sticky-stuff violations this season -- the other being the Yankees’ Domingo German. The Mets can’t win at anything these days, not even the benefit of the doubt on such a randomly-enforced rule.
“I’ve done the same thing all year -- sweat and rosin,” Smith said. “I don’t know what else to say. Nothing changed. I think the process is so arbitrary. It can change from one [umpiring] crew to the other.”
If Smith is to be believed, then this crew was just another tough bounce for the Mets, along with the rest of their terrible luck and lousy play at the most pivotal moments. Mix that all together, and it’s a potent formula for losing nine of their last 10 games. Tuesday night marked the fourth time in six losses they blew a lead of three runs or more, with Scherzer lighting the match for this one.
“I got to be better tonight,” Scherzer said. “Put the camera right on me. I gotta be better.”
But Scherzer had plenty of company. Brandon Nimmo, who’s turned himself into a superb centerfielder, inexplicably whiffed on Volpe’s very catchable pop-up with one out in the sixth inning — a gaffe that set up Josh Donaldson’s go-ahead sacrifice fly. Nimmo later explained that he initially thought he’d have to dive for it, then screwed up when he chose to stay on his feet instead -- an example, to him, of trying to do too much in the midst of this team-wide malaise.
“Rather than make the play, and just let it happen the way it’s supposed to, you’re trying to go maybe that extra mile,” Nimmo said. “So it definitely could be part of the problem.”
Then, of course, there were the obligatory blown chances at salvation, when the Mets failed to push across the tying run in the eighth despite loading the bases with one out. They finally seemed to have the Yankees on the ropes when Wandy Peralta loaded the bases with one out, but in came Clay Holmes, who proceeded to whiff Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte, both on 3-and-2 counts.
“I felt like we were going to win the game,” Lindor said. “It’s hard to swallow.”
The Mets have much bigger problems than merely losing to the Yankees. But failing again, this time on the Subway Series stage, only makes everything that much worse.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
