PHILADELPHIA – Max Scherzer’s impressive series has finally come to an end.
The Mets suffered a 3-2 defeat in the first game of the match with the Phillies on Mother’s Day. And Scherzer, who scored 4-0 in his first five appearances as a Matt, suffered his first regular-season defeat in 24 consecutive starts on May 30, 2021.
“Damn running,” Scherzer said of his series. “Obviously it takes your teammates to do that; I’ll always say that. But it’s also cool to be a part of it.
“You have to go out and give your team a chance to win. It’s your job as a starting pitcher. I feel like I’ve done it over the last few starts here and they’ve picked me up. More like team stats, but it’s good to be a part of it.”
Scherzer’s stellar streak came during this and last season while playing for the Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Mets.
Facing the Phillies for the third time this year, and a second consecutive start, the 37-year-old allowed 10 goals of the season, giving up three series in the process.
Scherzer’s last start was postponed for a total of two days due to consecutive delays on Friday and Saturday due to rain. So the right-winger spent a whole week between starts and struggled with his command on a cold and windy afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
But despite the bad weather, he refused to justify himself.
“I’m just not going to make excuses for anything,” Scherzer said. “It’s my job to go out there and compete and win under any circumstances, under any conditions.”
“Today it was just the grindstones; we were trying to get back into their lineup,” Scherzer said. “I know I was wrong with Harp ‘, but I was playing pitches. For them, it’s part of baseball to get into singles, (though) they just had the feeling they had a lot of singles to enter, but that’s just part of the game.”
On a day when Scherzer didn’t have the best of things and the weather conditions were less than ideal, he could still give the Mets six substitutions, seven throws and three earned sets. And apart from the home run he allowed his former teammate Bryce Harper at the bottom of the first inning, most of Phillies ’fouls came through soft contact.
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“He couldn’t catch baseballs,” Buck Showalter manager said of Scherzer. “Proof by the number of skaters he couldn’t get to. The balls were smooth, you could say (Kyle) Gibson had the same (problem).
“That was good. For Max to make it through six, I think they had two heavy balls from him all day.”
But the Mets attack was unable to give Scherzer much support in this competition. Opposing starter Kyle Gibson had six substitutions, allowing two sets on six goals.
New York scored both rounds of Gibson in their last inning of work, but lost the tie at second base after double RBI Francisco Lindor.
Phillies facilitators Seranthony Dominguez and Jose Alvarado struggled to find a hit zone in the seventh and eighth, but recovered to retain a one-round lead before Corey Knebel, who led the crash Thursday night, won redemption against the Mets in the ninth.
Scherzer has a 4-1 with a 2.92 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 49 strikeouts in 37 innings in the first six starts as a Met. The Mets are 19-10 in the season, and their goal will be a split in the second game of the match with the Phillies on Sunday.
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