Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

The Mets took on Nicaragua in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie. With the World Baseball Classic quickly approaching and many of the Mets’ regulars being away from the team to be with their national teams, the Mets starting lineup featured plenty of young players, including Francisco Álvarez, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos. Despite a dominant effort from Max Scherzer, where he recorded all nine of his outs by strikeout, the bats struggled to get anything going and recorded just one infield single as Nicaragua picked up the 2-0 win.

Scherzer made quick work of the Nicaraguan lineup in the first inning, striking out the side in order. In the second, it was a former MLB player that got Nicaragua on the board first. Cheslor Cuthbert turned on an inside fastball and hit it over the wall in left-center field to give Nicaragua and early 1-0 lead. After striking out his fourth batter of the game, the defense behind Scherzer began to falter. Back-to-back hitters reached base thanks to errors from Vientos playing first base and Luis Guillorme at shortstop, but the right-hander was able to escape trouble with two more strikeouts to retire the side.

Scherzer picked up right where he left off when he went back out for a third inning of work. He struck out the side in order once again, giving him nine strikeouts in his three innings of work. Despite all of their outs coming via the strikeouts, the Nicaraguans were able to make Scherzer run his pitch count up to 62 in three innings, in part by fouling off 12 two-strike pitches. He took the mound to face Cuthbert again to lead off the fourth inning, but was pulled after walking the former Met minor leaguer.

Eric Orze came into the game with Scherzer’s runner on first and nobody out. Cuthbert immediately stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by Álvarez to put Orze in a tight spot. He struck out the next hitter and had two strikes on former Diamondback minor leaguer Elian Miranda, but he could not put Miranda away and allowed a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 2-0 for Nicaragua.

While the bats struggled to get going, the Mets bullpen kept them in the game. Sam Coonrod came into the game in the fifth inning and pitched a scoreless inning allowing just a single. Jeff Brigham followed with a perfect sixth inning with a strikeout, and  T.J. McFarland pitched a scoreless inning of his own to keep the deficit at two runs.

With two outs in the seventh inning, the Mets finally recorded their first hit of the game. To nobody’s surprise, it was a pinch-hitting Ronny Mauricio who broke up the no-hit bid. With two outs and a runner on first, Mauricio hit a ground ball up the middle for an infield single. An error on the throw allowed the Mets to get runners on the corners and gave them their first opportunity to get back into the game, but Alex Ramirez struck out looking on a 3-2 slider to end the inning.

The Mets again had an opportunity to get even without getting a hit in the eighth inning after a walk and a hit-by-pitch with one out, but they were unable to capitalize. José Peraza popped out before Kevin Parada hit a 105.1 MPH line out to left field to leave two more runners on for the Mets.

Thanks to scoreless innings from Jimmy Yacabonis and Josh Walker in the eighth and ninth, the Mets entered the bottom of the final frame still trailing by just two runs. After a walk and another hit-by-pitch to start the frame, Mauricio came to the plate as the winning run. Despite nearly everything going his way up to this point in spring, he finally caught a bad break when he hit a 109.6 MPH double play ball. Ramirez followed with a groundout to close out Nicaragua’s 2-0 win.

Player of the Game: Max Scherzer

Nicaragua’s lineup may not be loaded like the United States and the Dominican Republic, but what Scherzer was able to do is impressive against any group of professional hitters. Mad Max allowed two runs on one hit and one walk while striking out nine in three-plus innings of work. While the two runs in three innings may not look great on paper, Scherzer overmatched every Nicaraguan hitter not named Cheslor Cuthbert.

On Deck

The Mets will play the second of their two exhibition games against WBC teams on Thursday when they take on Eduardo Escobar, Omar Narváez and Venezuela at Clover Park at 1:10 p.m. ET. Escobar will start at third base for Venezuela before moving to left field, and Narváez will start behind the plate. José Butto will make the start on the mound for the Mets, and the game will be broadcast on SNY.