The Mets came into these playoffs with two bona fide aces. The first one they trotted out didn't make it through the fifth inning of a 7-1 loss.
But never, in 456 starts in his Hall of Fame career before Friday, in eight postseasons, has Scherzer made that walk harried by boos from a crowd of 40,000-plus like he did in the fifth inning of the New York Mets’ 7-1 loss in Game 1 of their first-round series against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field on Friday night.
Because never, in 26 postseason outings and countless crucial regular season efforts, has a team rendered Scherzer as unintimidating as the Padres did, with four homers and seven earned runs in 4⅔ innings against him.
But for Scherzer, who has allowed four homers in a game just three times in his career, who has allowed seven earned runs just a dozen times, and who has not come close to doing either in a game this important, Friday night’s showing qualified as unprecedented.That showing, combined with the Mets’ complete inability to solve Yu Darvish, pushed the Mets to the brink of elimination.
DeGrom, who finished the season with four subpar starts and left the last of them with a blister, said he was able to throw his normal side sessions on schedule — that the whole thing “worked out.” Plus, if there was any silver lining to Scherzer’s struggles, it was that they let deGrom know early Friday that he would be needed in Game 2.“The main preparation is going to be tomorrow when I get here. Going over scouting reports,” deGrom said.
Perhaps deGrom will dominate and the Mets will win the series, the point moot in hindsight. But even if that happens, even if it all works out, the Mets will wonder exactly what went wrong with Scherzer. Because even Scherzer, keenly aware of his body and his mechanics, could not guarantee he could fix it.
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