Photo via USA Today

Max Scherzer did everything he could for the Mets on Friday night after dominating on the mound against the Mariners.

On a night when the starters for both teams slogged it out like two heavyweight boxers exchanging a flurry of blows, the Mets were unable to reward another impressive Scherzer start with a W after going down 2-1 to Seattle.

As ace Jacob deGrom can relate to, the run support just wasn’t there for Scherzer who has largely come as advertised since signing a three-year, $130,000,000 contract in Queens in Free Agency.

It was domination from the start too as the veteran starter worked a 1-2-3 inning in the first, relying on his 4-seam fastball to get Seattle’s top of the order out without breaking too much of a sweat.

It was a similar story in the top of the second as Scherzer again leaned on his fastball, while also throwing his filthy slider in there for good effect. He struck out Eugenio Suarez with two consecutive sliders, a pitch he went to 22% of the time with a 50% whiff rate.

Jesse Winker and then Julio Rodriguez then both popped out to end another 1-2-3 inning, and Scherzer breezed through the third too with Mike Ford, Steven Souza Jr. and Luis Torrens all going down without too much resistance.

Interestingly, an early trend from the opening few innings was despite Scherzer’s reliance on the fastball, it wasn’t as successful as the slider given that the fastball elicited just a 6% whiff rate, despite that pitch being used 46% of the time. It did touch 95.5 MPH but the 37-year-old was having more luck with his other arsenal of pitches.

Scherzer did run into some trouble in the fourth after hitting Ty France with a pitch to put a man on first, with J.P. Crawford and Winker both hitting singles to allow France to score and give Seattle a 1-0 lead. However, Scherzer went back to his slider to force Rodriguez to ground out and escape the inning without incurring any extra damage.

That proved to be just a minor stumbling block too as, despite hitting Ford with a pitch to start the fifth, Scherzer got Souza Jr. swinging with a lethal combination of the slider, fastball and changeup, before the slider forced Torrens to ground into a double play and end the inning.

Scherzer was in cruise control at this point and he mowed through the top of the order again, forcing Frazier and France to both ground out before striking out Crawford.

However, while he was dominating in typical ‘Mad Max’ fashion, Scherzer did run into some more trouble in the seventh as Suarez singled and both Winker and Ford walked to load the bases with one out. His defense came to the rescue though with Eduardo Escobar executing a 5-4-3 double play to ensure his pitcher got out of the jam unscathed.

That proved to be the end of Scherzer’s night as he finished a strong start with one earned run on three hits, two walks and six strikeouts in seven innings pitched while throwing 98 pitches.

As a result, Scherzer now has a 2.66 ERA over the first seven starts of his Mets career, allowing just 13 earned runs on 29 hits with 11 walks and 55 strikeouts in 44 innings pitched in total.

Not bad at all.

Scherzer certainly showed signs of the stud pitcher we all know can absolutely dominate games on Friday night, and the most important thing was he gave his team every possible opportunity to go and win the game.

And, speaking to the media after the game, Scherzer was intent on shifting praise on to his teammates for executing a huge double play in the seventh.

“I’m trying to strike him out,” Scherzer said of his approach in the seventh inning leading up to the double play. “A strikeout is the best thing you can do in that situation. A ball in play, anything can happen but, fortunately enough, he hit it right at Eduardo and Eduardo did a great job of fielding, recognize the situation and we were able to turn the double play.”

While it has been fun for Mets fans to watch Scherzer do what he does best in a Mets uniform, manager Buck Showalter has also gotten a kick out of seeing the three-time Cy Young Award Winner perfect his craft on a day-to-day basis.

“I’ve seen it from both dugouts and it is a lot more fun from the one he’s pitching for you,” Showalter said. “Every once in a while you kind of catch yourself just watching him compete, trying to get loose before the game, trying to get the game started and there being a first pitch, from the second he walks in here he’s getting ready to compete, play and pitch and it rubs off on his teammates.”

You pay the big dollars in order to get big time performances and, after Friday, the Mets are certainly getting that from Scherzer who has delivered in a big way so far in Queens.

“He fortifies what it takes to compete at this level and there’s no secrets about what he’s going to do when he goes out there and he’s still able to do it,” Showalter said. “He’s got all these hitters coming in that he doesn’t necessarily know but I see the homework and the work he puts in preparing with the catchers.”