Whenever Max Scherzer takes the mound, Giants fans might as well cover their eyes in terror.
The last time the Giants saw Max Scherzer, he entered the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series like a pro wrestler ready to knock anything and everything out of his way.
He earned the first save of his career, striking out two — including one on Wilmer Flores’ check-swing — to preserve Los Angeles’ 2-1 win.
Now with a different team, in his first game at Citi Field in a Mets uniform, Scherzer turned the tables on San Francisco — and Logan Webb. As the game occurred in April, not October, the stakes were clearly different. Still, Scherzer’s brilliant seven-inning performance ended Webb’s franchise-record streak of 24 starts without a loss that spanned back to last Cinco de Mayo.
Scherzer outdueled Webb in what shaped up pregame to be one of the best pitching matchups of 2022’s early-goings. The former turned the strike zone into his personal canvas, painting the corners and fooling Giants (7-4) hitters all night. Behind Scherzer’s 10 strikeouts and one earned run allowed, the Mets swept Tuesday’s doubleheader with a 3-1 victory.
In what felt like 39-degree weather, Webb’s fastball velocity dipped from about 94 to around 90. He relied more on his changeup than usual, and struggled to locate both that and his normally trustworthy slider.
Webb threw just 43 of his 75 pitches for strikes. The third inning was the least sharp he’s looked since roughly a calendar year and opened the door for his early hook.
The 25-year-old righty needed 31 pitches to get through the third. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso — the stars of the first leg of Tuesday’s doubleheader — doubled and walked respectively. Then Eduardo Escobar battled and battled and battled, then knocked Webb’s eighth pitch of the at-bat down the right-field line for a two-run double. Dominic Smith followed him up by swinging at the first pitch and driving in Escobar.
Webb’s night was done shortly after that, and all eyes turned to Scherzer.
In his five no-hit innings, Scherzer struck out every Giant in the lineup except for Joc Pederson. There were scattered hard-hit balls from Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada, but most of the time, Giants hitters looked helpless against the 37-year-old.
Walks drove up Scherzer’s pitch count, and by the time Mike Yastrzemski and Brandon Belt reached on balls in the sixth, it became clear Scherzer wouldn’t — nay, couldn’t — go the distance. But this is the future Hall of Famer who prides himself on posting and has exceeded 120 pitches in 10 career games.
With Yastrzemski and Belt on, Darin Ruf broke up Scherzer’s quest for his third career no-hitter with an RBI double. Pederson stepped up to the plate with two outs representing the go-ahead run, but he went down quietly.
Even though he got out of the inning, that was surely it for Scherzer, right? He was at 94 pitches and had completely shut down San Francisco.
But then he again did what has become a scene out of a horror movie for Giants fans: he walked back out to the mound for the seventh. Once he made it out there, he only needed eight pitches to retire Thairo Estrada, Brandon Crawford and Steven Duggar in order, the last out being a three-pitch strikeout.
In the eighth inning, against Mets reliever Drew Smith, Yastrzemski nearly tied the game with one swing. He clubbed a low-and-inside slider deep to right field, sending Starling Marte twirling back toward the wall. The ball left Yastrzemski’s bat at 101.8 mph, traveled 359 feet and would have left 18 of 30 ballparks, per Would it Dong?
But the shot dropped into Marte’s glove on the warning track. The Giants will need more than two hits to win games, and that third proved elusive on Tuesday.
Both teams burned most of their best relievers in the first leg of the doubleheader, but only Scherzer — not Webb — gave his team the lengthy start it needed. Webb wasn’t going to keep his unbeaten streak alive forever, but it’s fitting that it took a pitcher as electric as Scherzer to put an L next to his name in the box score.