Max Scherzer struggles in first start since suspension against former team: ‘It was bittersweet’

DETROIT — Max Scherzer used to dominate at Comerica Park. He won the first of his three Cy Young Awards as a member of the Tigers and became one of the preeminent pitchers of his time during his five seasons in Detroit.

This wasn’t the same Scherzer that took the mound Wednesday night. Scherzer gave up six earned runs and failed to get out of the fourth inning in an 8-1 loss to the Tigers in his first game back after a 10-game suspension. His velocity was down, his spin rates were down and the Mets couldn’t give him any offense to work with.

“He went 13 days without pitching,” manager Buck Showalter said. “I was trying to get him to 80 pitches just to keep building him up, but it’s something you’ve got to go through. We were hoping for a little better results and I know he was. We only scored one run and even at five, we felt like we’d make a run at it but we didn’t.”

The 13-day layoff may partially be to blame. Scherzer was able to throw and do his daily work during the downtime, but he wasn’t fully built up to be able to give the Mets seven solid innings of work. At 38 years old, he might not be bouncing back from breaks as quickly as he once did.

“I’m working back from this and trying to navigate through the lineup and not have that go,” he said of his diminished velocity. “Hopefully, I get back in sync with the mechanics and I can start kind of getting through the ball better. [My velocity] was down, but not by a lot. And it was a cold night. So it is what it is.”

Scherzer left a belt-high 92.5 MPH fastball right out over the middle of the plate and missed with his slider on the outside corner. Unsurprisingly, both of those pitches were hit for home runs. He couldn’t get into a rhythm out of the stretch and he was working out of the stretch often.

His velocity topped out at 93 on Wednesday night, which has been consistent with other starts. He would like to be up around 94-95 and identified that as his biggest area of concern.

Scherzer has yet to truly give the Mets an ace-like outing.

“You sit there for 13 days — I think that’s more the case than anything else,” Showalter said. “We knew there was going to be a process and [we were hoping] it would be a little bit quicker. But he’s going to get better and we need to get better.”

After losing eight out of their last 10 games, it’s clear the Mets need to get better in many areas, but it’s tough to win when the starting rotation is in a constant state of flux.

The pitching staff has crumbled around Scherzer. The elite rotation that the Mets hoped would pitch them to the playoffs hasn’t taken a full turn because of injuries and the depth starters have been inconsistent. The Mets are tied with the Cincinnati Reds for the fifth-worst starting ERA, with the group having posted a collective mark of 5.56. The bullpen has been overworked as a result and the depth bullpen pieces have struggled at times as well.

Only one pitcher has gone seven innings — left-hander Joey Lucchesi — and he only did it once.

The Mets were hoping this would be a moment for their ace to re-establish his dominance. Instead, it left many wondering about sticky stuff and questioning the pitching plans for the rest of the season.

“When you have the velo down like that, you have to figure out the answers,” Scherzer said. “I don’t necessarily have them tonight. I don’t know exactly what was going on, I haven’t watched the video. That’s the job for the next couple days and we’ll get out in the bullpen and fix it.”

Maybe this start was simply an aberration; a blip on the radar in what will otherwise become another stellar season. After all, Scherzer remains confident that he can turn this around.

But if he can’t, it will lead to questions about his age and his legacy.

The fans in the once-proud baseball city saluted the pitcher as if he was still their own. Scherzer came off to a standing ovation as left-hander Zach Muckenhirn came in to relieve him and make his Major League debut.

It was almost like old times but without the old results.

“It was bittersweet,” Scherzer said. “But it’s tough to have something feel good when you don’t pitch well. But I’m very appreciative of the fans here and their support.”

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