Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Max Scherzer‘s Mets debut was well worth the wait.

On a feisty night at Nationals Park on Friday with the Mets fully embracing the Mad Max mentality, the three-time Cy Young Award winner played his role to perfection in another big win.

With ace Jacob deGrom on the shelf to start the season, Scherzer was expected to take the mound on opening day only for a hamstring injury to ruin those plans, instead setting the stage for Tylor Megill to continue his rapid ascent.

However, lining up against his former team on Friday night, Scherzer showed no lingering after-effects from his hamstring or the lighting issue that delayed the start of the game for more than 20 minutes.

Instead, Scherzer looked calm and collected on the mound as he put together an easy first inning, retiring the top of the Nationals order with just nine pitches.

It started with a Cesar Hernandez bunt that Scherzer dealt with himself by tossing it to Pete Alonso at first, before old teammate and good friend Juan Soto flew out to left after also attempting a bunt. And Scherzer finished a flawless inning by striking out Nelson Crúz.

One key stat that took centerstage before the game was the fact that Scherzer absolutely balled out against his former teams, going 10-0 in 13 starts with nearly 14 strikeouts prior to Friday.

That may have looked a little in danger as the veteran ran into trouble in the second, hitting Josh Bell to start the inning before Keibert Ruiz singled to make it first and third no outs. Yadiel Hernández then hit a sac fly to center to drive in Bell to score and give Washington the lead.

However, Scherzer rebounded by striking out Alcides Escobar to finish the second inning, before he retired the side in order in the third.

Averaging between 93-94 MPH on his 4-seam fastball, Scherzer did run into some more trouble in the fourth after giving up a single to Cruz to leadoff, before standing and watching as Bell hit a two-run homer to tie it up at 3-3.

Scherzer struck out Maikel Franco to end the fourth, with the pitch clocking 95.6 MPH on his fastball at one point, and he mowed down the order with two strikeouts of Escobar and Hernandez in the bottom of the fifth.

Soto walked in the sixth but, as he did all evening, Scherzer refused to be rattled and proceeded to do what he had done at Nationals Park so many times before.

Work his magic.

Cruz grounded out into a double play and then Bell lined out to Jeff McNeil at second, and that spelled the end of what was a solid debut for Scherzer, who was replaced by Drew Smith on the mound in the seventh.

Scherzer retired eight of his final nine hitters and finished with 80 pitches in six solid innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits while striking out six and walking one.

He had trouble with his fastball throughout the night, but he adapted by relying on variety and throwing all five of his pitches at least 10 percent of the time, as demonstrated by the clip below:

It was a tantalizing taste of what Mets fans should expect from Scherzer this year and, while there were a couple of little roadblocks along the way, it was an impressive outing with 53 of the righty’s pitches resulting in strikes.

While it won’t go down as an all-time great performance, it was a gritty outing from Scherzer who did what he had to do to get through it on what was no doubt an emotional night for the former Nats ace.

Still working around his hamstring injury, coupled with the fact that his fastball lacked a trademark explosiveness and didn’t elicit any swing-or-miss on it for the first time since 2010, Scherzer was satisfied with his night’s work.

“It went pretty well, considering what I was having to battle through,” Scherzer said. “I was able to pitch one quick down and just kind of go out there and compete.

“Ran into a little trouble that inning with (Nelson) Cruz getting the leadoff and JB (Bell)… I didn’t get a fastball up higher enough and he was able to hit it for a homer, but worked around it and the rest of the team had big two-out hits.

“When you get a little breathing room, you get some run support like that, it allows you to be aggressive and attack the hitters and I was able to get through the fifth, through the sixth and turn it over to the bullpen.”

And Scherzer went into detail when explaining his approach to getting through his start while protecting his hamstring and trying to avoid sustaining any further damage.

“You got to protect your leg in that situation,” Scherzer said. “Even though I felt I was 100 percent, I could get into it, I just didn’t want to risk anything else. You might have an injury in one spot but something else could go on you if you’re going too hard.

“Over the years there’s been countless times where you are out there, you’re not 100 percent and you’ve just got to pitch within yourself, not go too hard and pitch through it. You can pitch through injuries and tonight (Friday) was one of them.”

Scherzer has now improved to 11-0 in 14 starts against his former teams, adding another six strikeouts to the 908 he had previously orchestrated at Nationals Park, home to many a breathtaking night of dominance from Mad Max.

And, while Mets manager Buck Showalter has witnessed some of baseball’s greatest acts up close and personal throughout a long and distinguished career in the dugout, even he couldn’t help but be impressed by the gutsy effort put in by Scherzer on Friday.

“He’s so much more of a pitcher than people realize,” Scherzer said.

“He has to pitch with a governor on (his fastball), and he hasn’t pitched in a game in 11 days, and he still gives you a performance like that.”

Scherzer’s outing on Friday won’t go down as an instant classic, but it was the type of performance you’d expect from a pitcher who has built his career on getting the job done no matter what, and Mets fans should be excited about what the future Hall of Fame will be able to do once he’s fully healthy and fully dialled in.