CINCINNATI — Nearly seven weeks removed from his most recent major-league game, having endured a grueling rehabilitation of the most serious in-season injury of his career, Max Scherzer returned Tuesday night looking about the same as ever: utterly excellent.
Scherzer tossed six shutout innings, struck out 11 and threw only 79 pitches against the Reds.
His dominance — and mere presence, for that matter — meant a lot for the Mets moving forward. They have one of their aces healthy again, with the other, Jacob deGrom, expected back by the end of the month, positioning them as well as they could hope for the playoff chase.
In his re-debut, Scherzer allowed two hits, walked none and retired 14 of his final 15 batters.
The tangible assurances that he had moved past his once-strained left oblique came in the first inning, when he retired the top of the Cincinnati lineup in order on nine pitches.
The only modicum of trouble he encountered came during a 22-pitch second, when Donovan Solano singled and Scherzer hit Mike Moustakas to put two runners on with one out. Nick Senzel’s flyout to right moved Solano to third. Then Scherzer ramped up his fastball to 97.1 mph — his fastest pitch of the year — for a called third strike on Matt Reynolds (who was briefly his teammate with the Mets in April).
Altogether, the outing was a promising first sign that Scherzer’s return indeed will be a boon to a Mets rotation that missed him.
From Opening Day through May 18, when he got hurt, the starters had a 3.23 ERA (in 39 games). That was second best in the National League (behind the Dodgers) and fourth best in the majors.
From May 19 through Monday, the day before Scherzer came back, the starters had a 4.92 ERA (in 41 games). That was in the bottom third of the majors, between the rebuilding/generally aimless Orioles and Pirates.
That difference was not due solely to Scherzer, especially with the likes of fill-in David Peterson pitching well. But re-adding one of the best pitchers of his generation to the rotation should benefit all involved.
“There’s a track record, more than anything. You got a guy with a track record. If he’s healthy, at some point — it may not be tonight — he’ll revert to that track record,” manager Buck Showalter said before the game, seeming to want to downplay Scherzer’s immediate-term on-field impact. “You never take anything for granted. I know Cincinnati’s not. They have some guys who probably are looking forward to competing against Max, especially his first time out when you’re not sure exactly what is going to go down.”
Scherzer’s impact extends beyond the field, too.
“It’s nice having his persona back,” Showalter said. “Sometimes that persona plays better when you’re contributing. So I think that’s what he’s looking forward to.”
Pitching opposite Scherzer was Cincinnati rookie lefthander Nick Lodolo, who went 4 2/3 shutout innings in the best of his four major-league starts. He was returning from injury, too, having suffered a back strain in April. The Mets had more batters reach via walk/hit-by-pitch (four total) than via hit (three) against Lodolo, who struck out eight.
Their appearances took just a tad longer than anyone expected because the game was delayed 53 pitches by a threat of rain — not actual rain, to be clear, just the potential for it. The grounds at Great American Ball Park remained dry throughout.
