Mets To Unleash Aces Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer In Same Game Over Weekend

It's not bad enough that opposing lineups will be forced to face Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, who carry a total of five Cy Young Awards between them, on back-to-back days during the regular season.

Now the St. Louis Cardinals will have to see this pair of aces in the same exhibition game on Sunday, March 27.

The plan is for deGrom to start, and go three innings, with Scherzer coming on in relief to go five or six behind him, as pitching coach Jeremy Hefner shared with The New York Post.

“When I flashed the idea to Max, he was like, ‘I am going to close it down,’ ” Hefner said. “It will be good for the fans. What an afternoon. What an opportunity for a family to come in and, ‘Hey, I am going to the yard to watch deGrom and Scherzer throw in the same game.’ That may never happen again, so it’s a pretty cool opportunity for fans and for us to witness that.”

Scherzer has prior history pitching in relief in the postseason, having done so in both the 2019 and 2021 playoffs for the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Scherzer threw five innings and struck out five, while allowing just one run on three hits, in his first Grapefruit League start as a Met on March 21. DeGrom followed this performance up the next night by tossing two scoreless innings on 30 pitches, while striking out five batters in his first action since July 7 of 2021.

DeGrom is slated to make his fourth-consecutive Opening Day start on April 7 against the Nationals in D.C. Scherzer will get the ball the following evening in Game 2 of this series versus his former team.

MLB Network recently ranked deGrom (No. 1) and Scherzer (No. 3) as two of the top three best starting pitchers in all of baseball.