Very few people outside San Diego gave the Padres much of a chance to beat the Mets in the best-of-3 Wild Card series. Every game is at Citi Field. The Mets won 101 games while the Padres won 89. Las Vegas had the Friars as the biggest betting underdog of all four Wild Card series.
Perhaps they should re-think all that.
It's just one game but it's an awfully impressive one. The Padres acted like the kings of Queens in a 7-1 Game 1 win, putting them one win away from a series victory and a date with the Dodgers in the National League Division Series, and they did it by beating one of the best pitchers of this generation to a pulp.
Max Scherzer, the 3-time Cy Young Award winner and future Hall of Famer, gave up a hit to Jurickson Profar on the 1st pitch of the game (which would turn into a theme in this game) then served up a 419-foot opposite field blast to Josh Bell in the 1st inning to put the Padres on top 2-0. In the 2nd inning Trent Grisham lofted a solo homer to right field to make it 3-0.
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But Scherzer's pain really began in the 5th inning.
Ha-Seong Kim led off with a single. Then the 1st pitch approach paid dividends. Austin Nola lined a ground-rule double off the chalk down the right field line. On the next pitch Profar hit one just over the right field wall for a 3-run homer and a 6-0 lead. Two batter later Manny Machado went after the first pitch and hit a laser into the left field seats, chasing Scherzer and putting the Mets in a huge hole.
Mad Max is the first pitcher in Mets post-season history to allow seven runs in a start. He gave up four homers and had four strikeouts. Meanwhile, Padres starter Yu Darvish was able to get himself out of trouble. New York put runners on 3rd base with less than two outs in the 1st and 2nd innings but failed to score either of them. Then Darvish found his groove, getting through the 3rd inning on just five pitches.
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Yu retired 10 straight Mets hitters before Eduardo Escobar hit a solo homer in the 5th to make it 7-1. It was the only run he allowed. Darvish threw 101 pitches over 7.0 innings and struck out four. In his three starts against the Mets this year he went a total of 21.0 innings, punched out 19 and allowed just two runs.
It doesn't get any easier for the Mets in Saturday night's elimination game. Blake Snell goes on Saturday night. The lefty has given up just two runs over his last 25.0 innings. Mets manager Buck Showalter will very likely throw Jacob deGrom hoping to avoid getting swept.
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