Max Scherzer Has So Much to Prove

The last time we saw Max Scherzer, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

He had a forgettable postseason outing in his first season with the Mets last season. He gave up seven runs on seven hits in 4 ⅔ innings against the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the Wild-Card series, including four home runs. He exited to a chorus of boos at Citi Field after he gave up a home run to Manny Machado in the fifth inning.

Scherzer was an illustration of the underachieving Mets in the playoffs. He represented everything that went wrong for a team that had high hopes in the postseason. This was after allowing four runs and nine hits over 5 ⅔ innings against the Atlanta Braves in his final regular-season start.

Despite finishing the season at 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA, he was a disappointment based on his last regular-season and postseason starts. The Mets needed him for those two important games, and he didn’t deliver. It’s possible his oblique injury flared up after serving two stints on the injured list last season.

However, Mets fans don’t want to hear it. He might as well be Tom Glavine, who flopped in his final forgettable regular-season start as a Met when the-then Florida Marlins torched him for seven runs in the first inning. It resulted in him exiting the game after recording only one out. His awful performance let the Mets complete their 2007 first-place collapse in a devastating 8-1 loss, costing them the NL East title and a playoff appearance.

So yes, Scherzer has something to prove this season. He needs to show that he can be healthy, and he must show he will be reliable in the postseason when it really matters. With fellow Met Justin Verlander being on the injured list Thursday afternoon with a low-grade strain of the teres major (a muscle in the armpit area), there’s a greater burden on Scherzer to perform more than ever.

Scherzer received the Opening Day assignment last week, and in his start on Thursday afternoon, he gave up three runs on four hits while striking out six in six innings in the Mets’ 5-3 victory over the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. He allowed three runs in the sixth inning after five shutout innings, including a two-run home run to Garrett Cooper that tied the game at three. To his credit, he did manage to get two outs that put him in a position to strike out Jazz Chisholm Jr. to end the threat.

His day was a mixed bag. He gave the Mets length in this outing that made Mets manager Buck Showalter's job easy by not going deep into his bullpen late in the game. He mixed his slider with his fastball to dominate for the most part outside of that awful sixth inning. We can chalk his struggles in that inning up to him not working deep into the game this spring training.

If there is a trend about Scherzer as a Met, it’s his penchant for giving up home runs at the wrong time. In his last regular season start against the Braves, he gave up a two-run home run to Dansby Swanson in the fifth inning, giving the Braves a 3-2 lead after having a 2-1 lead to work with, and then he gave up a solo home run to Matt Olson in the sixth inning, giving the Braves a 4-2 lead.

In his postseason start against the Padres, he gave up a two-out, two-run home run to Josh Bell in the first inning, which had the Padres take a 2-0 lead, then gave up a two-out solo home run to Trent Grisham in the second inning, extending the Padres’ lead to 3-0. He did it again on Opening Day in the sixth inning after Cooper’s two-out, game-tying blast.

This has to be a concern. Now at 38, he can’t dominate like he used to. That’s just part of being old. He is going to have to use his guile to get by in jams and late in the game when hitters face him this time around. Sometimes, he needs to pitch around even without his best stuff.

It’s unrealistic to expect him to pitch as he did with the Washington Nationals when he won back-to-back Cy Young awards. Still, he can be effective by being cerebral. He needs to know how to outthink hitters by being crafty, and to know how to find his location without throwing hard which will assist his effectiveness. He has to do a better job of fooling hitters without his best stuff.

Can Scherzer adapt at his age like Verlander? Time will tell. Sometimes, he had a hard time adapting. It could be the injury that hindered him last year.

Despite Scherzer’s accomplishments, there has to be a question mark concerning his age. In a young man’s sport, it will be interesting to see how his body and his arm can hold up in a long season. That’s another reason why he has so much to prove.

He should be okay, but the Mets need him to be more than okay. They need him to be reliable in September and October.

Unless he does that, there is no way he can say his time as a Met was a success.

The Mets did not give Scherzer a three-year, $130 million deal to just be good earlier in the season and flame out in the end like last season.

His starts might as well be a referendum this season since he is the Mets' question mark.

You can read Leslie's Jersey Sporting News columns on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.