New York – for Max Scherzer, a landmark win proves elusive. Now for the Mets hoping to ride Scherzer deep into October, they hope it won’t be long before he gets another bite of that apple.
This is after the slant case that suspended Scherzer for several weeks earlier in the year surfaced again on Saturday night, eventually forcing Scherzer to an early exit. 7-1 loss For the citizens of Citifield. In pursuit of a career 200 win for the third time, Scherzer showed no outward signs of compulsion as he completed five rounds of one-ball runs against his former team. But alarm bells sounded when Tommy Hunter took over to start the sixth game to replace Scherzer after just 67 shots in the 1-1 game.
Scherzer was actually at his best just before the exit, retiring seven times in a row and side in 10 pitches on the fifth. But back in the dugout, he reported what the Mets later called “a feeling of fatigue on his left side.” The 38-year-old missed his starts earlier in the year with a left tilt strain, but he’s been working at full tilt since his comeback, averaging 6 2/3 runs and 98 runs over his 11 starts.
It was also hugely effective on those rounds, hitting a 2.10 ERA with 89 strokes. Scherzer had finished seventh in nine of those starts, and completed six runs in the other two rounds. With that kind of archaic Scherzer workload, the Mets acted with understandable caution when the side issue re-emerged Saturday night.
As a result, Scherzer was long gone by the time Adam Ottavino allowed Lynne Thomas to get the green light in eighth and Adonis Medina allowed five runs (four won) in the ninth, sinking the Mets on a night rallying little against Patrick Corbin.
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