Max Scherzer enjoyed a far different outing against the Padres than the last time he saw them.
It was an entirely different start than his most recent appearance on the mound, as well.
Coming off a nightmarish second start of the season last week, Scherzer rebounded in a performance that should provide the Mets a sigh of relief even if it was a bit brief.
He tossed five scoreless innings with six strikeouts and just one hit allowed, largely shutting down the Padres’ high-octane lineup in the Mets’ 5-0 win at Citi Field on Monday evening.
Scherzer was replaced by reliever John Curtiss for the start of the sixth inning after throwing 97 pitches.
It followed a brutal start for the Mets’ co-ace in the team’s 9-0 battering by the Brewers on April 4, when he pitched 5 ¹/₃ innings and allowed five runs and eight hits with just two strikeouts.
Scherzer allowed back-to-back-to-back home runs in a hellish sixth inning that night before being pulled.
Scherzer recorded a solid start in the Mets’ Opening Day win over the Marlins.
But he similarly struggled in the sixth inning, giving up all three of his runs in the frame, including a two-run homer.
His pitch count prevented another crack at the sixth inning on Monday and he admitted his fastball wasn’t as sharp as he wanted, but Scherzer still believed it was a “step in the right direction.”
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“I thought I self-diagnosed [my last start] right,” Scherzer said after the game. “I’m not broken. I wasn’t broken after the Milwaukee start. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, just had to fine-tune some things. That’s baseball. If you follow the results, you can make yourself go crazy at times. You’ve got to be able to reflect on what’s actually happening and know where you’re getting beat. I thought I identified the right things to be able to do, and I made better pitches because of that.”
Scherzer was tasked with the Game 1 start against the Padres during the two sides’ wild-card clash last season that saw the Mets eliminated in three games.
He lasted just 4 ²/₃ innings, though, and gave up seven runs, four home runs and seven hits when the Mets needed him most.
It’s a small sample size, but the Game 1 woes and his last start against the Brewers marked two starts in Scherzer’s last three, dating back to last year, in which he was shelled.
The first inklings of concern had perhaps begun to arise around the 38-year-old Scherzer prior to Monday’s effort.
Instead, he looked much closer to the ace the Mets are relying on, and staved off those concerns for at least for a few more days.
“He just never gives in,” manager Buck Showalter said after the game. “He wanted to go out for the sixth, he always does, but he did what he needed to do.”