NEW YORK — One strikeout, followed by another whiff, and then another. Suddenly, nine consecutive batters retired, including 17 of the last 18. This was getting real; Max Scherzer had the look.
In his first home start as a Met, Scherzer carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning of the Mets’ 3-1 win over the Giants in Game 2 of a Tuesday doubleheader. Of the 18 batters he’d faced up until that point, only one had reached base, on a walk. Mets fans, filling up Citi Field on a cold and windy night, were living on every pitch. Hey, he did it as a National against the Mets back in 2015 at Citi Field. What was stopping him from doing it again, this time as a Met, seven years later?
Then Scherzer gave up a two-out walk, and another walk. Ultimately, Giants designated hitter Darin Ruf ended Scherzer’s no-hit bid in the sixth with an RBI single to left field. Scherzer finished the sixth at 94 pitches, and he looked gassed after those back-to-back walks, so it was somewhat surprising when he came back out for the seventh.
But this is Scherzer — Mad Max — we’re talking about. He continued pacing in the dugout before jogging back out to the mound for one more frame.
Scherzer’s seventh and final inning featured an underlying layer of vengeance. He needed just eight pitches to retire the side, including his 10th strikeout of the night. The right-hander, donning a blue No. 21 Mets jersey, strutted off the mound following his 102nd pitch and high-fived his teammates in the dugout. Now, his Citi Field debut as a Met was really over.
Scherzer is 3-0 to begin his Mets tenure. The 37-year-old veteran righty has not suffered a loss in any of his last 22 starts. And the Mets rotation, following the doubleheader sweep of San Fran, has a 1.57 ERA across the first 12 games of the season, representing the best ERA in MLB.
The intimidating Mets rotation has been aided by the team’s new-look lineup, a unit that seems to find ways to claw back or get ahead early.
The Mets offense knocked elite right-hander Logan Webb out of his start as early as the fourth inning. The Giants ace came to Citi Field with a 1.29 ERA over his first two starts and 14 innings, so Webb naturally looked befuddled when Giants manager Gabe Kapler trotted out of the dugout to pull him after just 3 2/3 innings. But Webb allowed three runs on six hits, and walked three, against a determined Mets lineup that did all of its Game 2 damage on two-out hits.
