CY YA LATER, MAX!
Mets clock Scherzer to give de Grom hope in win vs. Nats
WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer’s résumé for the NL Cy Young award will have plenty of shiny adornments, but 20 wins won’t be among them.
The Mets may have aided teammate Jacob de Grom’s own chase for the prize by bumping up Scherzer’s ERA on Thursday and keeping the Nationals ace stuck at 17 wins with two starts remaining.
The rest of the night worked out for the Mets, but it took time: Jose Lobaton’s 12th-inning sacrifice fly scored the go-ahead run in a 5-4 victory at Nationals Park.
DeGrom, who leads the major leagues with a 1.78 ERA — but is saddled with an 8-9 record — is scheduled to pitch for the Mets on Friday.
Scherzer, who has won the past two NL Cy Young awards, saw his ERA move from 2.53 to 2.57 after he allowed three earned runs on five hits and two walks over seven innings, with 13 strikeouts. Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce hit back-to-back homers in the third for the Mets’ scoring against Scherzer.
“We are pulling for Jake, so these games against [the Phillies’ Aaron] Nola and Scherzer are bigger for us,” Conforto said.
Scherzer leads the NL with 290 strikeouts and de Grom is second with 251. Scherzer has pitched 213 2/3 innings to de-Grom’s 202.
Anthony Swarzak was handed a 4-2 lead in the eighth and allowed the only two batters he faced to reach base. Juan Soto’s double off Robert Gsellman drove in both runs to end Jason Vargas’ shot at the win.
Vargas rolled into the sixth with a one-hit shutout before allowing a two-run homer to Anthony Rendon that sliced the Mets’ lead to 3-2. The blast was Rendon’s 100th in his major league career and extended his on-base streak to 28 games.
Seth Lugo got the final out in the sixth, after Vargas was removed. Overall, the lefty allowed three hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts and two walks. It continued a solid stretch for Vargas, who owns a 3.11 ERA over his past seven starts.
“I had command of the strike zone down for the most part,” Vargas said.
Conforto’s homer — a tworun blast — was his 27th this season, which tied a career high. The homer gave Conforto 24 RBIs in September, extending his MLB lead for the month.
Bruce’s RBI single in the eighth provided the Mets with their fourth run.
Manager Mickey Callaway was ejected in the 10th inning for arguing a strike call by plate umpire D.J. Reyburn. The ejection was Callaway’s second this season.