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<\/p>\nYou have to understand a couple of things.<\/p>\n
First off, I’ve been waiting to go to a playoff game for six years. Second, I was waiting all season to see Max Scherzer pitch in person as a Met. So you could imagine how pumped I was for tonight, even taking into account everything that happened in the last weekend of the season against Atlanta, and the last month of the season against the Cubs, Nationals, and Marlins. Even though it was October 7th and not October 12th, this was going to be the night it all came together. All the circles were converging, all the stones of Thanos were going to be on my fingers. I was ready.<\/p>\n
But between that last month and the task ahead, having to face the Yu Darivsh and Blake Snell (with Joe Musgrove waiting for us in a potential deciding game), I was also aware of how Friday night could have easily gone sideways. I think everyone else was too. I mean, people were excited, but I got the general sense from the crowd at Citi Field that there was a little uneasiness, a little apprehension. I’m not sure the crowd was at full throat tonight. Maybe 9\/10ths throat? 19\/20ths? Whatever fraction of throat you want to surmise to be close enough to full to make noise, but not quite there to signify that “hey, you guys still have to show us something.” There was still a crescendo that led up to a first pitch where we were ready to get there … all the way there … with a first pitch strike.<\/p>\n
That first pitch was a looping hit to the outfield.<\/p>\n
The fourth batter, Josh Bell, responded to the very Chipper like refrain of “SWING THE BAT, JOSH!” by swinging said bat and launching a ball to the heavens for a 2-0 Padres lead.<\/p>\n
The eighth batter, Trent Grisham, responded to cries of “you’re hitting .184? Maybe baseball isn’t for you!” by hitting a home run of his own to make it 3-0 in the second inning. (Same guy by the way … and no, it wasn’t me.)<\/p>\n
It was enough to keep the crowd from getting to that realm of “full throat”. The closest we came in the early innings was to boo celebrity Padres fan Emma Stone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There was enough complaints about Adrian Johnson’s strike zone being inconsistent to let me know that I wasn’t crazy for thinking that Mets batters were getting squeezed even from my very suspect vantage point of section 524 row 16. But those same Mets batters didn’t do themselves any favors by strranding runners on third in both the first and second innings, and lifting everything harmlessly in the air against Darvish. After two innings it was 3-0, and at that point, it seemed … well I don’t want to say it seemed over, but the crowd was never able to get to full throat, try as we may to get going some haunting chants of “DAAAAAR-VIIIIIIISH”. The third inning rolled around and even with Max Scherzer finding some footing, it didn’t seem like a 3-0 lead that the Mets could come back from. It seemed more like a 3-0 lead that Connor Gillaspie had just given the other team.<\/p>\n
So the fifth inning comes, and I’m getting a severe contact high from the smell of weed that permeated the top three rows as if Ron Gardenhire was batting against Marty Bystrom at Shea Stadium. So I had to go get something else to eat. So as I’m going down the stairs, the turntable stylings of someone named DJ J Star blared over the public address (which is why that one unnamed player told the Athletic that playing at Citi Field was like playing in a nightclub<\/a>). He led off his fifth inning mix, for some reason, with Queen’s “We Are The Champions”, which is certainly a choice in the first game of the playoffs. If you want to call what happened in the top of the 5th a karmic storm after that, nobody in their right or wrong minds would argue with you.<\/p>\n Even walking through the corridors, you could tell that something bad was happening. After a quick peek to see that there were runners on second and third, I heard a bat crack, a bunch of groans, and a bag of trail mix that contained the following:<\/p>\n “F**K YOU SCHERZER!!!”<\/p>\n “FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS DOWN THE DRAIN!!!”<\/p>\n “YOU SUCK SCHERZER YOU BUM!!!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Silly me for thinking “oh no, Profar got a two run single.” I shouldn’t have been so pessimistic, as it was much worse than that. It was a three run homer by the aforementioned Jurickson Profar. And then while on the Utopia bagels line, another bat crack, and another round of groans. That sounded, felt, and smelt like 7-0 Padres. Sure enough, Manny Machado cracked a solo HR that signaled the end of Scherzer’s night, and perhaps the end of his season. It was then that Mets fans actually did get to full throat. You could hear the boos all the way from Tom Glavine’s locker in September of 2007.<\/p>\n Max Scherzer says nothing physical affected him in this start, oblique or otherwise. He wasn't getting his usual ride on his fastball and he's not sure why.<\/p>\n But Scherzer added: "If I get another shot to pitch, I know what I need to do."<\/p>\n — Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) October 8, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n