Photo: Ed Delany, Metsmerized Online

All of baseball had been buzzing about Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer both pitching for the Mets on Sunday at Clover Park.

It was a rare must-see spring training game. Parking ushers were packing in as many cars as they could and the stadium was standing room only. MLB Network decided to pick up the game. It felt like something more than just a spring game in March.

Mets minor leaguer Jacob Mangum told me before the game he was simply excited to be involved. “It’s a great day to be at the ballpark,” he said.

Photo by Ed Delany of MMO

The standing-room-only crowd (the berm in right field was packed) were treated to perfect baseball weather in Port St. Lucie and great pitching from the Mets.

DeGrom started the day with a 97 m.p.h. fastball that was fouled off. The two-time Cy Young winner worked around a Harrison Bader single to throw a scoreless first inning with three strikeouts. All three of the strikeouts came on off-speed pitches; two on sliders and one on a changeup.

DeGrom worked around a single in the second inning to throw another scoreless inning as well. The right-hander ran into a little trouble in the third inning when Dylan Carlson doubled and then Harrison Bader knocked him in with a single. The RBI single by Bader went just under the glove of shortstop Francisco Lindor on a play he typically at least knocks down to keep in the infield.

DeGrom ended up allowing one run on four hits in three innings with no walks and five strikeouts. DeGrom continues to work on his curveball, having thrown three in a row at one point and he talked about that below:

For the outing, deGrom averaged 97.3 m.p.h. on his four-seamer and topped out at 99 m.p.h. DeGrom threw 52 pitches in the game with 19 of them being sliders. He also threw four curveballs and four changeups as he works on getting his entire repertoire ready for Opening Day.

Max Scherzer relieved deGrom in the fourth inning with the Mets holding a 4-1 lead. The three-time Cy Young winner worked an easy 1-2-3 inning with his fastball sitting at 95 m.p.h. and threw a couple of 91 m.p.h. cutters.

Scherzer was having an uneventful outing until he ran into trouble in the seventh inning. Alec Burleson singled to start the inning before former Met Ali Sanchez knocked him with a double. Scherzer buckled down to retire the next three batters to end the inning.

Scherzer had an easy eighth inning, and then was shown in the dugout visibly upset while talking to pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Scherzer said after the game that he wasn’t even sure what he was mad about.

“That’s pretty normal for me” he said. “I honestly can’t remember, could’ve been something along the lines of not getting fastballs in on lefties or sliders or whatnot.”

The 37-year-old went out for the ninth inning (sixth inning of work), but was rudely greeted with a long home run from Anderson Tejada. Again, the veteran Scherzer would settle in to retire the next three batters including two strikeouts to end the game.

Scherzer finished his second spring start with six innings of two-run ball on 89 pitches. After the game, Scherzer said that his goal was to get 90 pitches in and was happy to hit that number. The Mets No. 2 starter struck out seven in the game and walked only one batter.

The Mets sent the 7,205 fans home happy with nine innings from deGrom and Scherzer, and a 7-3 win over the Cardinals.

The novelty of two of the best pitchers on the planet pitching in the same game wasn’t lost on Scherzer: “I think we all got a kick out of it.”