When Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish get together you know there are going to be some strikeouts. Darvish was the fastest pitcher in MLB history to reach 1,500 whiffs. Scherzer's K total climbed into 1st ballot Hall of Fame territory a while ago.
On Friday night, we did indeed see punchouts. Darvish was just a little bit better.
Yu spun 7.0 innings of 1-run ball to top Mad Max in a 4-1 Padres win at Citi Field in New York to open both teams' first series after the All-Star break. Darvish struck out nine and allowed just four hits in one of his better outings of the year. Scherzer struck out eight Padres over 6.0 innings, moving past both Curt Schilling and Bob Gibson into 15th place on Major League Baseball's all-time strikeout list.
But, he made one bad mistake and Eric Hosmer made it hurt. Hosmer, who has played so poorly the last two years that Padres fans are begging for the team to get rid of him, earned a temporary reprieve when he launched a 2-run, opposite field homer off Scherzer to put San Diego on top 2-0. Luke Voit, who had a pair of line drive singles, scored on the bomb.
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Joely Rodriguez took over for the Mets in the 7th inning and was greeted by another Padre who's been drastically underachieving this season. Trent Grisham hit a solo home run, his 10th of the year and that would be enough.
Nick Martinez tossed a perfect 8th inning and Taylor Rogers got his 27th save with a scoreless 9th. The Padres can win the series on Saturday with Blake Snell on the mound against Chris Bassitt.
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