Mets fall to Red Sox in nightcap after Max Scherzer struggles again
BOSTON — Max Scherzer provided quite the Fenway Park tour Saturday night.
It started when the Mets right-hander gave up a home run off the Pesky Pole in right field.
Then came a homer to deep right and another over the Green Monster.
Scherzer’s horror show concluded with a visit by one of his pitches to the center field bleachers.
Scherzer matched a career high with four homers allowed, sending the Mets to an 8-6 loss to the Red Sox, their second defeat in three games.
In the resumption of a suspended game from Friday, the Mets received a strong bullpen performance and won 5-4.
But the Mets still ended the day six games below .500, with seven games remaining before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Scherzer was nowhere close to the dominant force he was during his previous start, when he one-hit the Dodgers over seven innings.
Max Scherzer goes back to the mound after giving up a home run during the first inning against the Boston Red Sox. Getty Images
The four homers he allowed Saturday extended his total to 22 in 100 ²/₃ innings this season.
“It’s the pitches you don’t execute that is the reason that homers are hit,” Scherzer said. “Homers are thrown, not hit, so you have got to execute better.”
Scherzer allowed solo homers to Jarren Duran and Triston Casas, leading off the first and second innings, to fall into a 2-0 hole.
Duran hit a curveball off the right-field foul pole leading off the game for the Red Sox and Casas blasted a cutter for a homer to start the second inning.
Jeff McNeil’s Little League homer in the fourth inning temporarily tilted the momentum in the Mets’ favor. McNeil singled to score Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso.
After Duran threw home and McNeil advanced to second, catcher Jorge Alfaro’s throw sailed past the base — and beyond Duran in center field.
That allowed McNeil to advance the final 180 feet.
“I saw where the ball was going and I knew I was going to score,” McNeil said, noting that it was probably his first Little League homer since his youth. “It was a fun moment and I wish we won the game.”
Leading off the fifth, Yu Chang hit a slider, on which Scherzer said he didn’t have a good grip, over the Green Monster to tie the score at 3-3.
Casas’ two-run homer on a fastball into the center-field bleachers in the sixth placed the Mets in a 5-3 hole.
It marked the fourth time in his career Scherzer allowed four homers in a game.
It had last happened on April 6, 2021 when he was pitching for the Nationals against the Braves.
Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor react after scoring on a throwing error by Boston Red Sox catcher Jorge Alfaro during the fourth inning at Fenway Park. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
Yu Chang watches the ball after hitting a home run during the fifth inning at Fenway Park. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
“I’m in a funk right now where I’m just homer-prone,” Scherzer said.
Overall, he allowed five earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over six innings as his ERA surged to 4.20.
He has allowed nine homers in his last four starts.
Justin Turner delivered a two-run homer against Trevor Gott in the seventh to complete Boston’s rampage in the second game.
Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos and Brett Baty each delivered RBI singles in the ninth to slice the Mets’ deficit.
It went better for the Mets on Saturday afternoon in the resumption of the suspended game: Grant Hartwig, David Peterson, Dominic Leone, Brooks Raley and David Robertson combined to allow just one run over 5 ²/₃ innings of relief.
Justin Turner celebrates with Masataka Yoshida and Rafael Devers after hitting a two-run home run during the seventh inning. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
Pete Alonso slides home safely on a single by Jeff McNeil during the fourth inning. Getty Images
The Mets squeezed out one run, enough to supplement a pair of two-run homers from Brandon Nimmo and Daniel Vogelbach on Friday night before heavy rain stopped the game in the fourth inning and forced a suspension after nearly a two-hour delay.
“It’s one thing to map out potentially what you would like to do,” manager Buck Showalter said, referring to the bullpen. “It’s another thing to get the other team to cooperate with you … people did their job and it allowed us to stay in turn to where they are best equipped to get outs.”
The rookie Hartwig had scuffled in his last two appearances after a strong start to his Mets career, but he rebounded Saturday with two scoreless innings.
He took the ball as the game resumed in the bottom of the fourth with one out and departed with one out in the sixth.
“I just did my job — I was going until they told me I couldn’t,” Hartwig said. “That’s all I was planning to do and my job was to get it to the guys at the end of the game.”
Source: New York Post
