Mets shut out in Scherzer’s excellent return

Max Scherzer made his return from the injured list last night, and he was fantastic. The rest of the Mets, however, were not. The team was blanked by the Reds and lost 1-0 on a walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

Scherzer threw six scoreless innings, struck out eleven, didn’t walk anyone, and gave up just two hits. He needed just 79 pitches to do all of that, and while the outcome of the game itself was bad, seeing him look that sharp in his return from the injured list remains an encouraging development from it.

At the plate, the Mets had six hits, all of them singles, drew three walks, and were hit by one pitch. But they never scored against rookie lefty starter Nick Lodolo or any of the four relievers the Reds used after he departed, the last of which was Hunter Strickland.

The Mets’ bullpen wasn’t terrible, either, with Joely Rodríguez and Tommy Hunter throwing a scoreless inning each before Buck Showalter turned to Seth Lugo with the game still scoreless in the bottom of the ninth. He served up a leadoff double to Tommy Pham, the Mets issued an intentional walk to Tyler Naquin, and Lugo unintentionally walked Donovan Solano to load the bases. Mike Moustakas, who of course is of 2015 Royals infamy, then ended the game with a sac fly, leaving Lugo without an out to his name and the Mets with a loss.

With that, the Mets will look to win the series this evening in Cincinnati, and they’ll have David Peterson on the mound to start the game.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Max Scherzer, +37.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Seth Lugo, -35.1% WPA
Mets pitchers: +22.8% WPA
Mets hitters: -72.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jonathan India flies out in the bottom of the eighth, +16.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Tommy Pham doubles in the bottom of the ninth -17.0% WPA