Max Scherzer. Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Saturday, July 22, 2023 • 7:10 PM
Fenway Park • Boston, Massachusetts
RHP Max Scherzer (8-3, 3.99) vs. LHP James Paxton (5-2, 3.51)
SNY

Do you like Mets baseball? Do you like days when plans change? Then I have some exciting news for you. The Mets and Red Sox play their regularly scheduled 4:10 game at 7:10 tonight, thanks to the suspended game from yesterday. Thankfully the Mets have the Sunday night game, so we don’t have a situation where the Mets are playing three baseball games in 27ish hours.

Mets Lineup

Max Scherzer was vintage Max Scherzer in his last start. He allowed one hit, no runs over seven innings against the Dodgers. This season he has made 17 starts (94 2/3 innings) with a 3.99 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 1.183 WHIP and a 103 ERA+. The Mets need vintage Max again tonight, to give the bullpen a break, to give the team a chance to make the playoffs, or to become an even more valuable player to trade. The Red Sox have the following career numbers against Max Scherzer:

Opposing Lineup

James Paxton is looking for a bounce-back start tonight. His last time out in Chicago he allowed six runs from three hits and three walks over three innings. This season he has made 11 starts (59 innings) with a 3.51 ERA, 3.93 FIP, 1.034 WHIP and a 133 ERA+. The Mets have the following career numbers against James:

Game Notes

Luis Guillorme injured his calf in game one of the doubleheader against the Red Sox. Buck Showalter stated that the Mets will most likely put Guillorme on the IL, and the club has recalled Josh Walker as their 27th man for the night game.

The Mets and Red Sox will square off in a doubleheader for the first time in franchise history. New York won game one 5-4 earlier on Saturday.

Max Scherzer is set to make his sixth career start at Fenway Park. He is 3-2 with a 2.87 ERA (12 ER/37.2 IP) with 12 walks and 44 strikeouts in his previous six starts.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Mark Vientos? After Friday’s game was suspended due to rain, Buck Showalter joked that maybe he would have Mark Vientos go wake up Scherzer to pitch in the 2:10 game. The punchline here being that no one wants to be the person to wake Max up. It would be incredibly nice for to Vientos get some consistent playing time, starting in this game.
  2. Paxton hasn’t faced the Mets in a long time. Paxton first faced the Mets in 2017 as a member of the Mariners during the final weekend of baseball before the trade deadline. He held the Mets to six hits and no runs over six innings. He then had two very different starts against the Mets as a member of the Yankees in 2019. In one start he allowed six runs from seven hits over 2 2/3 innings. Then in the next start, he allowed only one run over six innings.
  3. Reminiscing about the last Mets weather-related suspension. Earlier this season the Mets and Nationals had a game suspended due to rain. Last night’s delay was about two hours before the Red Sox called it and announced a split-admission doubleheader. In May, the Nationals made the fans and players wait for four hours, before scrambling everyone’s Mother’s Day with a split doubleheader. After the Nationals game, Gary Cohen said “That is unprecedented to have the completion of a suspended game part of a split doubleheader”. Looks like the Red Sox saw what the Nationals did and decided that was a good idea!

Let’s go Mets!