Max Scherzer will start Game 1 of the Wild Card Series for the New York Mets against the San Diego Padres on Friday night (8:07 p.m. ET, ESPN), manager Buck Showalter announced following his team’s regular-season finale against the Washington Nationals.
“We’ve got a lot of good options, and he’s one of them,” Showalter said.
The 38-year-old right-hander went 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA over 23 starts in his debut season with the Mets — a campaign that featured the first lengthy IL stint of his career as he battled oblique issues. It kept his innings count to just 145.1, which is the lowest since his rookie season back in 2008. A byproduct of that, however, is that it staves off any concerns about the kind of fatigue that cropped up for him last season toward the end of the season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Scherzer faced the Padres earlier this season on July 22, allowing two runs on five hits across six innings of work with eight strikeouts in a walk. In 17 career starts against the NL West side, he’s 6-3 with a 2.88 ERA.
“You’re just anxious to get out there, you’re anxious to go out there to compete,” Scherzer said on Thursday. “Everything is on the line. Win or go home. That’s the attitude you have to have. When you get to the postseason, everything feels like a must-win game whether it’s an elimination game or not.
“You show up to the park knowing that you have to win the game today.”
Such responsibilities as this are why the Mets inked Scherzer to the most significant annual pitching contract in MLB history, signing him over the winter to a three-year, $130 million pact. He’ll likely also be looking to put his last start firmly in the rearview mirror after he was touched up for four runs and nine hits in 5.2 innings of work against the Braves in Atlanta over a vital weekend series that ultimately lost them the NL East division crown.
“[He’s] going to get a chance to not have their season end that way,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said earlier this week.
His counterpart in Game 1 will be Yu Darvish, who has had the Mets’ number over his career. In eight starts, he’s 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA. Two of those starts came this year, allowing just one run on six hits with 15 strikeouts across 14 innings of work.
