Morning Briefing: Scherzer Starting for Syracuse Tonight

Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, Mets fans!

Max Scherzer will make a rehab start tonight with Triple-A Syracuse. Scherzer was placed on the injured list on Sept. 7 (retroactive to Sept. 4) with a left oblique irritation. The expectation is that Scherzer will be ready to return to the Mets when his 15 days on the IL are up.

It proved to be another night to forget at Citi Field as the Chicago Cubs took the series with a 4-1 win in Queens. The bats again went cold, except for a solo Pete Alonso home run in the ninth inning, while Jacob deGrom gave up three earned runs and struck out 10 with no walks in six innings pitched. The continued struggles of the offense, and at the DH spot in particular, will be the biggest concern for the Mets, however.

On the subject of deGrom, though, while he allowed a couple of hits in big spots against the Cubs, he did record the 56th 10+ strikeout game of his career. That puts him just behind franchise great Tom Seaver, who had 60 10+ strikeout games. deGrom also set the major league record for consecutive starts (39) of allowing three earned runs or fewer. Jim Scott set the record in 1913-14. The legend of Jacob deGrom just continues to get bigger and bigger.

The Mets will close out the series against Chicago on Wednesday before starting a four-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Drew Smyly (6-8, 3.57 ERA) is scheduled to get the start for the Cubs, while the Mets will have David Peterson (7-4, 3.47 ERA) take to the mound. First pitch is set for 7:10pm.

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Tylor Megill and Drew Smith both pitched in Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday night as they continued their rehab assignments. Megill allowed five earned runs on three hits with no strikeouts and two walks in 0.2 innings, while Smith did much better with no runs allowed, one walk and two strikeouts in one inning pitched.

There was some feel-good news to emerge out of Citi Field on Tuesday. Not only was it team picture day in Queens, but first baseman Pete Alonso made a $10,000 matching donation to the Animal League, who do incredible work. And, let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to see pictures of Pete with pups?!

Also, Jeff McNeil has been added to the board of The Metropolitan PGA Section Foundation. McNeil will officially announce the partnership with The Foundation at Citi Field on September 16 with a pre-game donation presentation to the Cohen Children’s Hospital & Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. You can find out what the Foundation does here.

While the Mets are still battling for the NL East division lead, some of their minor league affiliates are already commencing playoff battle. On Tuesday, the St. Lucie Mets won Game 1 of their playoff series, with 2022 draft pick Blade Tidwell throwing four innings and striking out six with no runs allowed. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Cyclones won Game 1 of their playoff series 8-1, with Alex Ramirez going 3-for-5 at the plate and José Peroza going 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs, a walk and a home run.

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New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is having a season for the ages and he moved another big step closer to history on Tuesday. The long ball king hit two home runs as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 7-6 at Fenway Park, and Judge is now four homers away from equaling Roger Maris‘ 61-year-old American League record for single home runs in a single season. No matter what happens, Judge is going to get paid big time this winter.

Forget about Major League Baseball for a second. Over in Japan, history is also being made. Munetaka Murakami is forging an insane home run race of his own. Murakami, of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, is having a season for the ages at just 22-years-old with 55 home runs. With 17 games left to play, he has already tied the legendary Sadaharu Oh’s record for the most homers in a season by a Japanese-born player in Nippon Professional Baseball. He hit two long balls on Tuesday to pull level with Oh, and it seems that he could now add to that record by a considerable amount. It is quite the story.

The recent rule changes that were approved by MLB for the 2023 season have certainly got a lot of people talking, and Baseball America did some digging into whether or not the pitch clock reduced velocity in Minor League Baseball this year.

The Giants recalled LHP Thomas Szapucki from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned RHP Zack Littell to Triple-A Sacramento.

The Dodgers activated RHP Tommy Kahnle from the 60-day injured list and designated RHP Heath Hembree for assignment.

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Matt Lazzaro recaps another frustrating night at the plate for the Mets in the 4-1 loss to the Cubs on Tuesday night.

Rich Sparago collected some of the best reactions to the recent rule changes that were approved by MLB in time for the 2023 season.

Rawlings announced on Tuesday that, effective this season, they will award Gold Gloves to utility players. Andrew Steele-Davis looked at why that is good news for both Luis Guillorme and Jeff McNeil.