Max Scherzer undone by slider vs. Yankees: ‘I can’t remember the last time I was hanging that many’

QUEENS — Max Scherzer realized rather quickly that his slider wasn’t right on Tuesday night against the Yankees. Granted, Giancarlo Stanton helped him recognize that when he launched the hanging pitch 410 feet into the left-field seats at Citi Field to put the Mets down just two batters into the Subway Series opener.

But the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer wasn’t going to scrap the pitch entirely. Instead, he wanted to use it when he was ahead in the count as a pitch he could bounce to try and get Yankees batters to chase. 

“I always believe that when you throw five bad ones, you can throw the sixth and the sixth one is going to be good,” Scherzer said. “I had that belief every single time and I knew I was throwing some bad sliders. But sometimes you can work through an outing and you find it. You don’t get scared of it.

“I’ve pitched long enough to know I can throw a good slider. You don’t just start getting scared of your pitches. That’s why I continued to throw it but in counts where I thought it was going to get out of the zone.”

That didn’t happen — and with a 5-1 lead in the third inning, Scherzer’s slider was taken out of the yard again by DJ LeMahieu to cut the Yankees’ deficit to within two to start a fourth inning in which he yielded five runs. The Mets lost the lead and their ninth game in 10 tries, 7-6.

“I’m trying to bounce those pitches and they’re hanging,” Scherzer said. “So it shows you just how far off it was on my execution. It definitely stinks to have it happen like that, especially when we get a 5-1 lead. To cough that one up, that really leaves a sour taste in your mouth… I can’t remember the last time I was hanging that many sliders.”

That, which was one of Scherzer’s top weapons last season, has continued to elude him in a 2023 season in which he has struggled to live up to the ace-like reputation he’s built over the last two decades. After allowing zero home runs with the pitch last season, he’s already allowed five in 56.2 innings.

Over his last two starts, he’s allowed 11 runs on 12 hits across nine innings, increasing his season ERA to 4.45 across 11 starts.

“I wasn’t executing the way I needed to, especially with two strikes,” Scherzer said. “I wasn’t getting the [slider] in the locations that I wanted to no matter what my thought process was — whether I was trying to step on it or just trying to throw it naturally or even just try to back off and trust it and get it to the spots I wanted to.

“It was hanging in all situations and that’s what they were doing damage on me again.”

Scherzer implored that he can get the slider back on track, even adding that he had an idea of what it might be as he turns his focus on rectifying things in his bullpen session this week. As it stands, though, it doesn’t have much to do with his feel for the pitch.

“When you go out there and pitch, you know when you rip the slider and you know when you rip it in the right locations,” Scherzer said. “I had the feeling that I was ripping it coming through the baseball… but my location wasn’t there. Usually, there’s a little fix to get everything right, on time, and get it back because, at the end of the day, I can pitch with the slider.”

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