Max Scherzer Surrenders Four Home Runs in Loss to Red Sox

Max Scherzer entered Saturday night’s contest against the Boston Red Sox coming off a strong outing in which he allowed just one hit across seven shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, facing the Red Sox, Scherzer failed to keep the ball in the yard, coughing up four home runs in six innings as the Mets dropped the second game of the series.

Scherzer’s struggles began immediately, giving up a lead-off homer to Jarren Duran off the “Pesky Pole” on the seventh pitch the at-bat. After Masataka Yoshida singled, Scherzer induced three fly-ball outs to end the inning. Scherzer gave up another lead-off homer in the second inning, this time to Tristan Casas. The 38-year-old struck out Enrique Hernández and Yu Chang to avoid further trouble.

Scherzer committed a throwing error in the third inning but tossed scoreless innings in both the third and fourth. After the Mets gave him a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth, Scherzer struck out three in the bottom half of the frame.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Scherzer surrendered a lead-off homer for the third time of the night, this time on a hanging slider to Chang, tying the game at three. Scherzer did rack up two more strikeouts in the inning though, bringing his total to seven on the night. In the sixth, He walked Rafael Devers to start the inning and after getting Alex Verdugo to ground out, Casas cranked his second homer of the night to give Boston a 5-3 lead.

“I got to execute better. I absolutely need to execute better,” Scherzer said after the game. “I got to get to those up and in quadrants better and that’s easy to diagnose.”

Scherzer has now given up 22 homers in 100 2/3 innings this season after giving up just 13 homers in 145 1/3 innings in 2022. He didn’t give up a single homer on his slider in 2022, but he’s already surrendered nine homers on the pitch in 2023.

Notably, opponents entered Saturday slugging .605 with a .515 xSLG against it. Hitters slugged .370 against Scherzer’s four-seam fastball in 2022, and they’re slugging .454 with a .486 xSLG this season.

“The Chang home run, that’s just part of the game this year, that kind of a pitch, that one doesn’t bug me,” Scherzer said. “Same thing with Duran, obviously he got good wood to it, I’d like to get it lower, I’m not just going to lose sleep over a bad pitch. My curveball has been good this year, I got it down and in, I need it one more click down, most likely that’s a foul ball in most other situations, but it’s a homer here, but it is what it is.”

When asked about trade rumors, Scherzer declined to comment, reiterating his commitment to winning with the Mets. Scherzer’s ERA is now up 4.20 on the season. His home run rate of 1.97 HR/9 is the worst of his career so far. The most homers he’s allowed in a season is 31 in 2016, but he threw 228 1/3 innings that year.

“Max seems to always have a way of figuring things out and being there for us and competing,” Buck Showalter said. “Max is hard on himself in a good way, but I trust him.”

Scherzer’s next start is line for Saturday against the Washington Nationals.