Max Scherzer strikes out nine, leads Mets past Atlanta in series opener
Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer (21) works the first inning of a baseball game against Atlanta, Monday, July 11, 2022, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/John Bazemore
ATLANTA — Welcome to the first week of the rest of the Mets’ season.
Beginning with their matchup Monday, a 4-1 win, the Mets are playing 20% of their remaining schedule — 15 of 76 games — against Atlanta, the top team chasing them in the NL East. They are separated by just 2 1⁄2 games in the standings amid this crucial series, which won’t decide the division but might provide hints about the fun and stress to come over the next two months-plus.
The opener had plenty of both, plus a playoff-like atmosphere with a Truist Park sellout crowd of 42,925. Max Scherzer was even better than his seven innings of one-run ball would suggest, and Edwin Diaz — pitching for the third day in a row for the first time this season — struck out the side in the ninth for the Mets (54-33). Pete Alonso and Luis Guillorme, who homered in the eighth, each had two RBIs.
“When you can collect wins against them, that’s kind of a measuring-stick win. It’s a good feeling,” Scherzer said. “I just tell guys, hey, play off the adrenaline. When you get adrenaline, play off of it. Don’t shy away from it. Bring it on. This is what you play the game for. You want to be in these situations, you want to be facing the best teams in the league, you want to be in races. You gotta rise to the occasion and match it.”
Manager Buck Showalter said: “He rises to a lot of moments.”
Scherzer, who finished with nine strikeouts and no walks, was working on a one-hit shutout before wobbling in the seventh. After Dansby Swanson flied out to the wall in leftfield, Austin Riley lined a home run much deeper to left for the second hit and first run for Atlanta (52-36). Marcell Ozuna hammered a double, but Scherzer struck out Eddie Rosario.
He was ahead of Rosario 1-and-2 when he knew he wanted to throw a cutter and shook off Tomas Nido’s calls until the catcher figured it out. “That’s the game. This is the game,” Scherzer said. “If I make a mistake with this pitch, he can hit that pitch for a homer — or I can get a strikeout. It’s kind of either/or. It’s a high-risk, high-reward situation. I took it and executed it.”
Showalter said: “Nights like tonight, facing a really good team on the road with an atmosphere that’s conducive for the home team, he’s a difference-maker. It’s another reminder that when a pitcher is on top of his game, they win. And Max is on top of his game.”
Riley’s homer snapped Scherzer’s streak of scoreless innings upon returning from the injured list at 12. In two games. he has struck out 20 and walked none in 13 innings.
All-Star lefthander Max Fried, Atlanta’s No. 1 starter, was something less than his best self, allowing two runs and five hits and walking a career high-tying five in five innings. That the Mets didn’t do more damage spoke to recent struggles in key situations; they were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.
Affter Robinson Cano singled with two outs in the eighth and Ronald Acuña Jr. doubled him to third, Adam Ottavino got Swanson to ground out on his first pitch to protect a 3-1 lead. Diaz needed only 11 pitches to get through the middle of the order in the ninth. He has struck out 73 in 36 1⁄3 innings, an 18.1 K/9 ratio.
“It’s been awesome to watch him blossom and . . . make guys look like Little Leaguers out there,” Alonso said. “He’s been slicing and dicing guys up. He’s been really fun to watch.”
That the NL East is this close at this juncture is something of a surprise given the way the season started. After a scorching April and May, the Mets began June with a 10 1/2-game lead. Atlanta, conversely, struggled for most of that swath of schedule. But then the switch flipped and the defending World Series champions — and four-time defending division champions — started playing like it.
Entering the game, Atlanta had chopped nine games off the Mets’ lead since the start of June. With Monday’s win, the Mets have gone 20-16, which is fine. But Atlanta is 29-9.
“We knew that this division wasn’t going to be a ‘give me’ from the start,” Alonso said. “There are a lot of high-quality baseball teams in this division. This is the toughest division in baseball. Not a lot is going to separate us at the end, but this is why we play. This is going to be fun.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
