Mets

Josh Bell, Trent Grisham begin home-run parade against Max Scherzer, as Padres' rout puts them one victory from NL Division Series.

It got quiet for a time after Bell sent a Scherzer fastball 419 feet through the air to the seats beyond left field in the first inning. Bell and Wil Myers (7-for-25) were the only Padres with more than four at-bats against Scherzer to have better than a .182 average. “They’ve been big for us over the course of the season, and they have track records,” Melvin said. By the time Robert Suarez was jogging in from the bullpen and Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” was playing, thousands of seats were empty. [Padres](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres) hit four home runs in the first five innings on their way to a 7-1 victory and Mets fans turned on one of their star pitchers and their team and began to boo every move for a time and fight in the stands and eventually all but lose interest. Grisham batted .107 with one home run in September. 2 trade with the Nationals. They stole three bases, singled twice, were hit by a pitch and twice had a runner at third with one out. The “Lets Go Mets” chants started shortly after that. “We want to set a standard here, get our starters some run support, and let them do their job on the bump,” said Josh Bell, whose first-inning home run hushed Citi Field. Two batters later, Machado’s line drive at 110.5 mph just cleared the wall in left field. “We beat a great guy, and we’re going to face another one tomorrow.”

The Mets came into these playoffs with two bona fide aces. The first one they trotted out didn't make it through the fifth inning of a 7-1 loss.

But he admitted he thought he had made the right adjustment after allowing three home runs in his final start of the regular season. He knew the fastball he threw to struggling Trent Grisham an inning later was flat and ran out over the plate, right where Grisham — who hit .107 in September — could hit it. He said he didn’t think his oblique was the problem, but wouldn’t say for sure. “Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And this is one of the lowest of lows.” NEW YORK — Max Scherzer has given up the ball and walked from the pitcher’s mound to the dugout 445 times in his career.

NEW YORK -- Injured outfielder Starling Marte not only made the Mets' Wild Card roster, but he was in the starting lineup for Game 1 despite a fractured ...

Álvarez, who gives the Mets a right-handed option alongside Darin Ruf, can become the youngest Met to appear in a postseason game in franchise history. The Mets called Álvarez up for the last few games of the regular season, and after a disappointing debut weekend in Atlanta, he rebounded to collect a homer, a double and two walks over two games vs. “It means a lot,” Marte said of returning for the playoffs. Asked if Marte’s finger is still broken, Showalter demurred, replying: “What’s the definition of broken?” Marte said he last received an X-ray about a week ago, which showed enough inflammation in the area that team trainers forced him to delay his return to baseball activities. Lifetime, Marte is a combined 18-for-47 (.383) with four homers, a triple and two doubles against Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove and Josh Hader, all of whom the Mets are likely to see this weekend. The Mets had plenty of incentive to include Marte on their roster, considering his dynamic season that saw him hit .292/.347/.468 with 16 home runs and 18 stolen bases in 505 plate appearances.

New York tried to get cute with its first three starters. Now, it's one loss away from a more than promising season ending in heartbreak.

The Mets committed one of baseball’s cardinal postseason sins: They started trying to win Game 2 before they won Game 1. He said that he was on board with the plan—the deGrom deLay, we might call it—and that the blister he said bothered him against Atlanta had completely healed. (That one did not score the run; their only run came on an Eduardo Escobar home run with the game already decided.) Yu Darvish dazzled them, throwing at least seven different pitches (two distinct cutters, a four-seamer, a slider, a sinker, a curveball and a splitter, and there maybe have been a few more variations sprinkled in) and holding them to one run over seven innings, but they did have chances: In each of the first two frames a runner reached third base with fewer than two outs. Instead, a week after having a chance to seize the NL East and avoid this series entirely, New York faces the possibility that its season will be over before the weekend is. The Padres would win 7–1. He did not elaborate, but even a casual observer could understand that the idea would be to maximize New York’s one-two punch: Win Game 1 with co-ace Max Scherzer, use No.

Max Scherzer left the mound to a chorus of boos Friday night after allowing seven runs, including four homers, in the Mets' 7-1 loss to the Padres.

"Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows," Scherzer said. [Josh Bell](https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/_/id/32517/josh-bell) slugged a 419-foot opposite-field home run that scored [Jurickson Profar](https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/_/id/31117/jurickson-profar). I don't know why I didn't have my good fastball, the way I can usually pitch and locate." [Mets](/mlb/team/_/name/nym/new-york-mets) fans were supposed to come true on Friday night. "We ended up with the same record as somebody else in our division, and we're getting an opportunity now," Mets manager Buck Showalter said. Tonight, I don't know why the fastball ran.

Mets manager Buck Showalter expressed hesitation in recent days about Marte's injury progress, saying the outfielder struggled to grip a bat and baseball.

"In a situation like this, you kind of have to suck up the pain because it's a significant situation," Marte said. The 20-year-old slugger, ranked as the top prospect in the Mets' farm system, hit his first major league home run on Tuesday. The Mets medical staff tried a variety of tape and splint combinations on Marte's finger before landing on wrap-around padding. Despite that, the team seems to believe he can contribute to the team in the NL Wild Card Series. Marte has not played for the past month and has been working his way back from a fractured middle finger. "There's some unknown," Showalter said.

Terrance Gore doesn't play very often, but if the Mets need a run late in a postseason game, expect to see him pinch-run. He'll be ready.

He lit up at the mention of his 2019 season with the Royals, in which he saw some playing time as an outfielder and hit .275 with a .362 on-base percentage. In the eighth inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Gore was brought into a tie game as a pinch-runner for catcher Tomás Nido. The bases will also increase in size, reducing the distance between them slightly while adding more surface area for a sliding player to grab in a close play. Gore has played only in parts of ten games for the Mets, but they got a glimpse of his impact on Sept. You’ve got to know the pitches, the pitch count, who’s hitting, who’s playing first base.” He runs sprints in the tunnels underneath the stadium. He works at it and doesn’t want it to go away. “As much as I want to get in the game, it could be good if you don’t see me,” he said. “If you do see me, it means it’s time for me to save the day or something.” Gore earned his first World Series title in 2015 as a late-inning catalyst for the Kansas City Royals, who topped the Mets in five games. The appeal and the drawbacks are obvious: A stolen base can start a rally, while a caught stealing can kill one. “I’ll be jittery, but as soon as I take the first step of my lead, everything slows down.”

The food vendor could reap a major league windfall if teams with Aramark's concession stands at their stadiums go deep into the playoffs, Bank of America ...

Bank of America is bullish on Aramark in any case, noting that it is still recovering from the disruptions brought on by the Covid pandemic. In that case, Aramark could face 25 basis points headwinds on sales and 100 basis points headwinds on EPS growth, according to Bank of America. The bear case is that the Astros, Blue Jays, Phillies and Mets all lose quickly, with Aramark hosting a bare minimum of six games.

Will it be two-and-through come Game 2? A look at the most crucial factors as Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Toronto and New York aim to stave off elimination.

In Game 1, he struck out three times and flew out to left to end the game. Yet it’s fair to wonder after their 2-1 loss to the Guardians in Game 1 if their bats are finally too feeble to prop up a great pitching staff. Helsley went to get X-rays and perhaps other imaging immediately after Game 1. Their success over the past three seasons has been extremely pitcher-centric, which is a great way to live. With the Game 1 winner statistically favored to prevail at least 75% of the time in a best-of-three series, Friday’s losers need answers – and quickly. It’s also the dire situation closer Ryan Helsley’s injury-related pratfall leaves them for Game 2 (8:37, ESPN2). The price of poker has only gone up since he signed an extension with the Mets, and it’s not unreasonable for deGrom to expect a Scherzer-esque per annum. They did have Randy Arozarena, who hit an absurd 10 home runs between the ALDS and World Series. Not once did he waver from his intention to opt out of his contract, not even after a scapula injury delayed his 2022 debut to Aug. Saturday night, Jacob deGrom will take the ball against the San Diego Padres in a must-win situation. And after Josh Bell, Trent Grisham, Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado all homered, loudly and longly, Scherzer was on the losing side for a third consecutive playoff start. He made just 11 starts this season due to a shoulder issue.

The Mets will rest their hopes in Jacob deGrom, who said it's "a huge goal of mine to keep this going" as he takes the mound in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card ...

"You go out there and execute to the best of your abilities." The first came in 2015, when deGrom went six innings and allowed two runs with seven strikeouts and three walks in Game 5 of the NLDS against the After missing the first half of the season because of a stress reaction in his right scapula, deGrom returned in the second half and pitched well, posting a 3.08 ERA and 0.75 WHIP in 11 starts while striking out 102 batters in 64⅓ innings pitched. The issue first surfaced on his middle finger during his previous appearance against the [Oakland Athletics](/mlb/team/_/name/oak/oakland-athletics) on Sept. "It would mean a lot [to keep the season going]," deGrom said. [San Diego Padres](/mlb/team/_/name/sd/san-diego-padres) in Friday night's NL wild-card opener, manager Buck Showalter announced that deGrom would take the ball for Game 2 as New York faces elimination.

Max Scherzer and the Mets are in an early hole in the NL Wild Card series after a miserable loss to the Padres.

He also added an infield single in the bottom of the ninth. But Pete Alonso was frozen on a third-pitch fastball and Daniel Vogelbach flew out deep to the right-field corner. But the bottom fell out in the top of the fifth. But the momentum was halted when Lindor popped up to second base. Scherzer's implosion left a stunned fanbase as the Mets plummeted to a 7-1 loss in the first game of the teams' best-of-three wild card series at Citi Field. Now, the Mets' dream season is on the brink of coming to an abrupt end.

NEW YORK -- Before winning two NL Cy Young Awards, before earning billing as the likely greatest pitcher of his moment in time, Jacob deGrom forged his ...

Finally, as the Mets endured a three-game sweep in Atlanta, deGrom allowed three more runs to the Braves, admitting afterward that he had been nursing a blood blister on his right middle finger. He allowed three more in his next start to the last-place Pirates, then five to another last-place club, the A’s -- deGrom’s worst start in more than three years. He allowed three runs in a game to the lowly Cubs, who swept the Mets as they began their descent from likely division champions to a Wild Card team. There is perhaps no one in whom the Mets have more faith, despite the fact that deGrom will enter Game 2 at one of the most precarious junctions of his career. In Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the heavily favored Dodgers, deGrom struck out 13 batters in [one of the finest performances of his life](https://www.mlb.com/mets/video/degrom-fans-13-in-game-1-gem-c521203783). Shortly after the game, Showalter announced what he had already heavily implied: deGrom was going to pitch Game 2.