Nathan News

HARTFORD, Conn. — A right-handed ace with 3,000 strikeouts and a Hall of Fame resume took the mound at Citi Field Wednesday afternoon. He shot eight shutout innings against a first-place team on his way to victory. It was exactly in line with the Mets’ vision for their summer, down to one big detail.

The pitcher was Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros, not Max Scherzer of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Scherzer followed the game, a 2-0 loss to the Mets, from afar.

“I’ve seen bits of it, not the whole,” Scherzer said Wednesday night outside the visiting clubhouse at Dunkin’ Donuts Park, where he threw 80 pitches in a rehab start against the Class AA Hartford Yard Goats. “But I am aware of what has happened in the last few days.”

What happened was two home losses to the Astros, matching the Mets’ two losses in Houston last week. Scherzer did not play for the Mets all month as he recovered from an oblique injury sustained on May 18. The Mets went 13-12 at the top of the National League East in June but wobbled as the Atlanta Braves quickly caught up.

As June began, the Braves were 10½ games behind the Mets. Ahead of Thursday’s game in Philadelphia, they were 21-5 in June, matching a franchise record set in Atlanta for wins in a month and a tie in three games behind the lead.

The Mets’ offense — not their pitching — has stalled in Scherzer’s absence. The team only managed .232 in June, with a base percentage of .301 and a slugging percentage of .369. Only two NL teams came in on the last day of the month with a worse June OPS than the Mets’ .670: the also-leading Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Mets had a 4.32 earned run average this month, just 0.01 higher than their May mark. Taijuan Walker played seven and a third scoreless innings on Wednesday and has been doing like an all-star since Scherzer went down. The fill-ins were solid.

“What David Peterson did, what Trevor Williams did, they really held their ground,” Scherzer said. “They pitched really well and gave the ball club some quality starts and quality innings. That is why the lead is as it is and not even smaller.”

The Mets are playing 14 of their next 17 games against teams with losing records, starting with three home games this weekend against the Texas Rangers. They also face the Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, Braves and Chicago Cubs before the All-Star break. Scherzer is in line to start three of those games after declaring his rehab stint over on Wednesday.

“I’m ready to go,” he said.

Scherzer — who said he could have started for the Mets Wednesday — used all his pitches over four and two-thirds innings, hitting eight with a walk and hitting 97 mph with his fastball. The Yard Goats netted four hits and had three stolen bases ahead of Scherzer and catcher Francisco Álvarez, the Mets’ top pick, who cleared the left field stands with his 18th home run.

The Rumble Ponies won 7-3, and Scherzer bought the postgame spread, in keeping with baseball custom for big leagues moving through the farm.

“You’re eating well tonight,” said Scherzer.

Scherzer had gone through his pregame outfield routine under a scoreboard topped by a giant Dunkin’ coffee mug. He practiced his shot without the ball or glove, stretching from side to side, shaking his legs, jogging down the warning lane and sprinting a few times from left center field to a spot near the left field line.

Scherzer wore the Ponies’ powder blue backup jersey, “Bing” in script above the Binghamton, NY skyline, with hot air balloons near the shoulders. He missed another alternate jersey by a couple of days; Last Saturday the team competed as Binghamton Stud Muffins.

When he missed his spot with a throw, Scherzer grimaced and snatched his glove for the throw from Álvarez. In most cases, he immediately came back with the same pitch and placed it where he wanted. He wanted to stay for another batter or two — “My arm feels great,” he said — but knew he’d reached his pitch limit.

“We all know he’s the most intense guy out there,” said Binghamton pitching coach Jerome Williams, who spent 11 seasons with the majors and overlapped several years with Scherzer.

“On his last assignment, he was locked up right away, pacing and doing the normal Max Scherzer stuff. It might only have been four innings, but he focused on those four innings. He prepares properly; He knows a routine and what he has to do to get out there and perform. And that’s the one thing I like to show my pitchers that’s exactly what it takes. Look how long he’s been doing this.”

Prior to those two starts for Binghamton, Scherzer, who turns 38 in July, had not played in the minors since 2010 with the Toledo Mud Hens. He’s since earned three Cy Young Awards, nearly 200 wins and around $350 million by the end of his Mets contract.

The Mets gave Scherzer the highest annual salary in major league history — $43.3 million a year — in his three-year, $130 million contract on Dec. 1. In eight starts, he was as dominant as usual: 5-1 with a 2.54 ERA, lots of strikeouts and not many baserunners. He’s ready to return to that standard.

“Now the focus is more on the pitching, so going through this turnaround now I’m really confident about how I’m going to prepare for my next start,” Scherzer said. “There won’t be that much rehab on this so I really don’t think that’s going to overload the slope at this corner. With it I can make my next start in five days.”

The Mets’ other ace, Jacob deGrom, was shut down all season with a stress reaction in his right shoulder blade. He will soon surpass the one-year mark since his last major league appearance, but has thrown 27 pitches in live batting practice this week and may soon be ready for his own rehab assignment.

Due to the layoff — and the feeling that he just threw too hard for his reed frame last season — it seems unrealistic, at least initially, to expect the Cy Young version of deGrom when he returns.

Scherzer is different. When he’s back, he’s back in full force. In Yard Goat country he got what he wanted, but it was only a one-night gig.

“Cool little park, good to tick one more city off my list,” said Scherzer. “Hopefully that was it.”