The Mets went into Monday night looking for their first win of the year against a team other than the Marlins.
And in a rematch of last year’s decisive Game 3 of the wild-card series against the Padres, they got it, with a 5-0 victory at Citi Field.
Max Scherzer, coming off a mediocre start on Opening Day and an ugly one in his previous outing against Milwaukee, provided an encouraging performance, with five shutout innings.
He was also better than his counterpart from that wild-card game, Yu Darvish, who gave up a two-run double to Jeff McNeil in the third and five runs in 6 ¹/₃ innings.
“Being knocked out last year, yeah, it stunk, but it’s a new season,” Pete Alonso said prior to Monday’s game. “We just need to focus on winning today. Last year was last year for me. I’ve kind of closed that yearbook and it’s time to move on.”
Games like Monday could help.
Scherzer walked three and routinely pitched into deep counts, so he needed 97 pitches to get through five innings.
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He also held San Diego’s big three — Manny Machado, Juan Soto and Xander Bogaerts — without a hit.
The Mets turned to John Curtiss in the sixth, who issued consecutive two-out walks to Soto and Bogaerts before he struck out ex-Yankee Matt Carpenter on three pitches.
Drew Smith tossed a scoreless seventh, saved by a fine running catch by Brandon Nimmo in right-center on Austin Nola’s long fly ball that would have scored a run after Smith had walked Ha-Seong Kim with one out.
Scherzer, who said he was unable to finish hitters off in his previous start, didn’t have his best command on Monday, but he was still very effective and didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning.
Throughout his outing against San Diego, Scherzer gave up very little hard contact and didn’t allow a hit until Kim’s liner fell in front of Nimmo with one out in the fifth.
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He stranded Kim at first by getting Rougned Odor to pop out and struck out Nola after an 11-pitch at-bat that ended Scherzer’s night.
Scherzer got off to a shaky start in the first, as he pitched into and out of trouble. He walked leadoff hitter Trent Grisham, as well as Soto with one out, but got Bogaerts to hit into an inning-ending double play.
He walked another leadoff hitter, Odor, in the third and Odor advanced to second when Tomas Nido tried to pick him off of first, but instead threw wildly into right field for an error.
Odor moved to third on a groundout by Nola.
Scherzer bailed out his catcher when he struck out Grisham and got Machado to pop out to end the threat.
Despite not allowing a hit, Scherzer needed 64 pitches to complete three innings.
The Mets threatened for the first time and took the lead in the bottom of the inning, thanks to a two-out rally.
Nimmo started it with a single up the middle to snap an 0-for-11 streak. He stole second before Francisco Lindor was hit by a pitch.
McNeil followed with a two-run double.
Mark Canha opened the bottom of the seventh with a double and moved to third on Luis Guillorme’s bunt single. Eduardo Escobar drove in Canha with a sacrifice fly to left to make it 3-0 before Nido extended the inning with another infield single that just stayed fair.
Lindor ended the drama with a two-run double later in the inning and David Robertson and Adam Ottavino closed it out.
“We have a long way to go,” Alonso said. “A lot of teams are just trying to figure it out right now. Is this a measuring stick? I don’t know yet.”
