Max Scherzer is ejected, but Dodgers can’t take advantage in loss to Mets
Noah Syndergaard didn’t feel any extra adrenaline or emotion as he took the Dodger Stadium mound on Wednesday for his first-ever start against the New York Mets, the team he came up to the big leagues with in 2015, won a World Series game for that October and walked away from after the 2021 season.
“There are a lot of new faces over there,” said Syndergaard, who signed a one-year, $13-million deal with the Dodgers in December. “Guys like [Brandon] Nimmo, Pete [Alonzo], Drew Smith … I’ve had the luxury of playing with them and wearing that Mets jersey with them. But other than that, it was just another day at the yard.”
Well, not quite, unless your idea of a typical day at the ballpark includes the ejection of a future Hall of Famer for having a foreign substance on his pitching hand, a transgression that will likely net Mets right-hander Max Scherzer a 10-game suspension.
The Dodgers caught a huge break when Scherzer was tossed in the middle of the fourth inning of a scoreless game, and it looked like they might cash in when they scored an immediate run in the bottom of the fourth off Mets reliever Jimmy Yacabonis.
But the Dodgers managed just two runs and two hits over the final five innings of an eventual 5-3 loss to the Mets before a crowd of 43,990 in Chavez Ravine to fall to 9-10.
The Dodgers lose to the Mets 5-3 in a game in which Mets starter Max Scherzer is ejected for what umpires deem is a foreign substance on his hand.
“There was an adjustment,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the sudden departure of Scherzer. “Obviously, when you get somebody else outside of Max Scherzer, you like your chances, but unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize.”
Syndergaard pitched well, giving up two runs and five hits in six innings, striking out two and walking two, his only glaring mistake a fat changeup that Nimmo crushed for a two-run homer to right field in the fifth inning, the highlight of the Mets center fielder’s second career five-hit game.
Syndergaard, who is 0-3 with a 4.91 ERA in four starts, is clearly not as dominant as he was before his 2021 Tommy John surgery, when his fastball regularly hit triple-digits, but he had a slight uptick in velocity from his previous start on Wednesday, his four-seamer averaging 93.3 mph and sinker 93.2 mph.
“I think he has good stuff,” said Nimmo, who had four singles to go with his homer. “He doesn’t have the 98 anymore, but he’s figuring out how to pitch without it. He’s added a cutter, which helps him out. It’s not overpowering guys anymore, it’s pitching. I think he’s doing a good job of evolving with that, and I think he’ll be successful with it.”
Scherzer, who spent the final 2½ months of 2021 with the Dodgers, was also pitching against his former team, but he lasted only half as long as Syndergaard. Umpires detected something sticky on Scherzer’s glove and hand in the second inning and ordered him to change gloves and wash his hand.
Scherzer complied, but before the fourth inning, his glove and hand were found to be even stickier, plate umpire and crew chief Dan Bellino said, and he was ejected by first-base umpire Phil Cuzzi. Scherzer said the sticky stuff was a combination of legal rosin and sweat. Cuzzi and Bellino thought otherwise.
Max Scherzer was ejected Wednesday for having a foreign substance on his hand. It was poetic justice after what happened with the Dodgers two seasons ago.
“There was something likely more than just rosin, something that was so sticky that it was all over his palm, it was up on the inside of his fingers,” Bellino said. “The entire hand was stickier than anything we had inspected before, and, most importantly, it was worse than it was in that second inning, when he was told he had to wash his hand.”
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth when Jason Heyward doubled, took third on a Miguel Vargas single and scored on David Peralta’s sacrifice fly.
J.D. Martinez added an RBI double in the eighth, and Peralta hit a solo homer in the ninth, but the Mets had four hits against relievers Alex Vesia and Yency Almonte in the seventh and eighth innings, scoring on Tommy Pham’s sacrifice fly in the eighth, and Mark Canha hit a two-run double off Shelby Miller in the ninth for a 5-2 lead.
Short hops
Shortstop Miguel Rojas was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a left hamstring strain before Wednesday’s game and replaced on the roster by utility infielder Yonny Hernández. … Mookie Betts missed his second game on paternity leave, and he could miss Thursday’s game before returning Friday.
Are you a true-blue fan?
Get our Dodgers Dugout newsletter for insights, news and much more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
