WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer anticipated that his hamstring tightness would take just a few days to clear up, and this is Mets fans’ first lesson that they should have no reason to doubt him.
Scherzer passed all of his tests on Thursday, including fielding drills on the outfield grass at Nationals Park, that convinced the team to let him make his Mets debut on Friday, as planned, against his former team.
“I knew it wasn’t a major injury,” Scherzer said. “I’ve done this a couple of times — had an idea of what it was. You gotta hit your check points as you go through the rehabs, as you’re leading up to the start, and I was able to do that. So I was able to tell Buck (Showalter), ‘Hey look, I’m good to go.’ ”
The veteran right-hander felt his hamstring tighten up one week ago while running at Clover Park. He was scratched from his Saturday start — less than a day after Jacob deGrom learned he would be shut down from throwing for up to four weeks. While Mets fans panicked, believing they may have lost both of their aces just a week before opening day, Scherzer and the club maintained that this was just a “hiccup” and there was hardly anything for which to worry.
As long as Scherzer both makes it through his outing and recovers well from his first start of the season, he should be back on his regular schedule of pitching every fifth day.
Scherzer could not guarantee or predict how many innings he would go on Friday, but he stretched out to 90 pitches in his latest Grapefruit League outing. Mets manager Buck Showalter said Scherzer is “ready to go” as long as the team needs him to, but the Nationals offense must cooperate by keeping his pitch count low.
“This is one of those things you just gotta get in the game and manage the game,” Scherzer said. “I can’t tell you how many pitches I’m going to throw. You just manage what you got. Give it everything that you got and give it everything to try to win.”
The underlying theme of Friday night’s game is that Scherzer for the first time will be pitching against the team that he called home for six-plus years from 2015 to the first half of the 2021 season. Scherzer was traded to the Dodgers last July, two years after winning the 2019 World Series with the Nationals.
There is still a lot of love for Scherzer in the nation’s capital. Pictures and memories of the three-time Cy Young award winner are still displayed on the walls within the confines of Nationals Park. On Wednesday, the right-hander went to the visitor’s clubhouse for the first time since 2010, when he came to Nationals Park as a member of the Tigers.
“Just going to be a crazy, wild atmosphere,” Scherzer said of his Friday night start. “This was going to happen at some point. It was weird when I had that Dodgers uniform on, too. So, you get used to it, used to playing for another team. You go out there and just compete and have fun.
“A lot of good memories here. There always will be good memories here. But nothing lasts forever. As my baseball journey goes on, I’m here in New York and excited about what the future holds.”
Juan Soto, Scherzer’s teammate for four years, told reporters on Wednesday: “He’s going to try to strike me out, and I will try my best to not strike out because I know he wants that really bad.” Scherzer, in response, said: “Yeah, he doesn’t do that much.” (As in, strikeout.)
Showalter does not anticipate any extra adrenaline for Scherzer because his first start as a Met just happens to be against the team with which he won a ring. In case fans have not yet noticed, Scherzer’s maniacal mound presence doesn’t exactly need a catalyst.
“I don’t think there’s some situation that puts Max in a different adrenaline standpoint,” Showalter said. “He’s a self-starter. I know they’re going to honor him before the game. Nice gesture. Max is looking forward to competing.”
As a reminder, Friday night’s Mets-Nationals game will be exclusively aired on Apple TV Plus, so fans must have or download the app in order to watch. The game will be broadcast by Melanie Newman, Chris Young and Hannah Keyser. The subscription is free for all fans at least through the first half of the regular season.
