Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

All you can ask for from a starting pitcher is to give your team the best possible chance to win, and Max Scherzer certainly gave the New York Mets every opportunity to win at Citi Field on Friday night. It was a frustrating evening with the Phillies winning in extra innings and Eduardo Escobar and Jeff McNeil both leaving the game with injuries, but Scherzer certainly came as advertised once again.

However, it wasn’t exactly cruise control for Scherzer who struggled to find his control early and he ran into some trouble in the first inning. In the first at-bat of the night Bryson Stott hit a leadoff double off the wall, and he would come home to score on an Alec Bohm RBI single. Nick Castellanos also hit a single in the first but Scherzer was able to get out of the inning without any further damage after striking out Darick Hall for his second strikeout of the inning.

More trouble would follow in the second as two singles and a hit by pitch on Stott loaded the bases with two outs but, again, Scherzer was able to work out of the jam by forcing Bohm to ground out. Despite giving up five hits in just two innings of work, Scherzer limited the Phillies to just one run and but he threw 42 pitches during that span and he spoke about the in-game adjustments he had to make after a tricky start.

“I came out and I wasn’t executing pitches early enough,” Scherzer said. “They were putting good at-bats together, they were behind me but, after that, I was able to make adjustments, kind of free myself up and was able to from that point forward get back in the zone, throw first pitch strikes, didn’t walk anybody and, when you do that, it gives me a chance to pitch deep into the game. That’s what I hang my hat on. I was able to get through seven after being 40 plus pitches through the first two innings.”

Scherzer soon put those early struggles behind him and he began to cruise in the third, flying through a 1-2-3 inning before again grinding in the fourth after giving up two singles. Scherzer put together another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth and in the sixth, and his slider was the key ingredient for that success. The veteran starter used that pitch 31% of the time with a 32% whiff rate, making it his most effective pitch of the night.

Scherzer continued to lose his personal battle against Stott who singled again in the seventh inning, and the Phillies shortstop achieved a rare feat by becoming the first player ever to reach base four times in the same game against the future Hall of Famer. That’s obviously not something Scherzer would have been too pleased with but he atoned for that by getting through the rest of the seventh unscathed.

That proved to be the end of Scherzer’s night as he went deep in a game once again, allowing just one run on nine hits while striking out six with no walks. It wasn’t always pretty but Scherzer got the job done and he spoke about the grind of dealing with Stott and the Phillies putting together a string of tough at-bats.

“When you get in the division they really start keying in on what they can do against you and they really start picking up on your ten season,” Scherzer said. “They get more comfortable with their at-bats and the pitches in how they break against you. He (Stott) put together some good at-bats and this is part of Major League Baseball. There’s always going to be somebody who can go out there and find a way to grind an at-bat and find a way to get hits against you. It’s what you do next so we’ll continue to have good battles as we continue to go along.

Scherzer, who now owns a 1.93 ERA on the year, also paid tribute to his defense after what was a solid effort in tough circumstances. Mets manager Buck Showalter had to change up his infield following the injuries to Escobar and McNeil, including shifting Mark Canha over to third base for only the fifth time in the outfielder’s career. However, Canha delivered with a beautiful play in the fifth inning to get J.T. Realmuto out at first with a perfect throw.

“We had some great defense tonight,” Scherzer said. “Guys were just playing good defense behind me as well and in that type of situation you don’t try to punch as many tickets out, you’re just trying to collect outs and not walk anybody. You have to rely on your defense a little bit in that situation and the guys came through for me. As soon as he (Canha) caught it I thought ‘oh, thank God’ because I knew he was going to be able to throw him out. I mean, that’s a perfect example of Mark stepping up, playing third base and he’s going to get action and he came through for us.”