NEW YORK — The threat of a storm that never actually made its way to the Queens portion of New York delayed the start of the season’s second half for the Padres.
After waiting a half-hour Friday, they commenced getting their rhythm back, at least for the night, in a 4-1 victory over the Mets.
Eric Hosmer homered early, Trent Grisham homered late, the Padres tacked on a bonus run and Yu Darvish held up his end of the anticipated pitchers’ duel with Max Scherzer.
After Darvish’s sterling seven innings and a perfect eighth by Nick Martinez, Taylor Rogers weathered a hit batter and a fielding error behind him to earn his 27th save, tied for most in the major leagues.
A team that for more than a month has appeared mostly incapable of syncing its pitching and offensive performances did so in its first game coming out of the All-Star break.
The Padres talked at the end of the first “half” about having to slug more, and they did Friday. They spoke before the game about making Scherzer work, and they did.
Friday was just their second multi-homer game in a month and their 19th this season. Their 79 homers rank 25th in the major leagues.
Scherzer threw 69 pitches in the first four innings and 93 in all.
Scoring four runs might not usually constitute a breakout performance, but it was more than the Padres needed with Darvish allowing a run on four hits and a walk.
And it came against a pitcher who had allowed a total of three runs in his starts since coming off the injured list. It was probably the best the Padres could have hoped for against the guy with three Cy Young awards and a 2.87 ERA in 16 career starts against them.
Hosmer’s homer followed a single by Luke Voit in the third inning and made it 2-0.
After Scherzer departed following the sixth inning, Grisham greeted reliever Joely Rodriguez with a 404-foot drive to right field leading off the seventh.
Rodriguez got one out, yielded a single to Jurickson Profar and walked Jake Cronenworth. Seth Lugo replaced Rodriguez, and the bases were loaded after Manny Machado drew a 10-pitch walk.
Nomar Mazara nearly grounded into an inning-ending double play, but after Pete Alonso’s throw home to force Profar, catcher Patrick Mazeika’s throw back to Alonso at first base hit Mazara and the ball bounced toward right field as Cronenworth rounded third and beat another throw home.
The Mets got a run against Darvish in the seventh after he walked Jeff McNeil with one out and Luis Guillorme hit a long RBI double to right-center field with two outs.
What the Padres did Friday is almost as good as it gets against against Scherzer — especially without Daniel Camarena.
The players in the Padres’ starting lineup Friday were batting a combined .197 against Scherzer in their careers.
Of their 29 hits against him, Hosmer had 15. After going 2 for 3 Friday, he is batting .309 in his career against Scherzer, the ninth-best mark anyone of anyone with at least 30 at-bats against the 37-year-old right-hander.
It seemed early they would have another one of those nights where they threatened but didn’t follow through.
After Scherzer retired the first five batters he faced, Hosmer doubled with two outs in the second inning. Austin Nola followed with a walk, the second Scherzer had issued in 21 innings since returning from a seven-week stay on the injured list.
His oblique strain meant the Padres missed Scherzer when the Mets visited Petco Park in June. They were probably owed at least that after facing him five times in 2021 — twice when he was with the Nationals and three times after the Dodgers acquired him at the trade deadline.
They scored seven runs in the first meeting last season, four of those coming on about the most unlikely event imaginable — Camarena’s grand slam, the first by a relief pitcher since 1985 and the first time a pitcher had hit a grand slam for his first major league hit since 1898.
Scherzer allowed four runs in seven innings in his next start against the Padres, shut them out for 7 2/3 innings in his first start with the Dodgers and shut them out for eight innings in his second start before giving up six runs (five earned) in 5 1/3 innings in his final start against them.
After Hosmer and Nola were stranded in the second, the Padres had runners on first and second with no outs in the third. That promise, however, fizzled on pop-ups by Cronenworth and Mazara that sandwiched Machado’s strikeout.
