Why Mets' Max Scherzer Welcomes Failure While Preparing For Season

PORT ST. LUCIE - Superstar pitcher Max Scherzer is someone who can easily turn a negative situation into a positive one.

And despite the box score, Scherzer looked relatively sharp on the mound in his first simulated outing at Mets' camp on Wednesday morning.

Scherzer tossed 59 pitches across four innings on a humid day at Clover Park, allowing three runs on three hits, while striking out three batters and issuing a walk.

The right-handed starter featured all of his pitches: fastball, slider, changeup, slider, curveball and cutter, which is normal for him at this point in spring training.

And although Dom Smith beat him for two home runs over the short fence in right field, Scherzer looked crisp and only gave up one additional hit.

Regardless, Scherzer, who is known for being an intense competitor, enjoys getting beat while preparing for the regular season.

“He has never hit those pitches against me,” Scherzer said of Smith, who he has faced numerous times while pitching for the Nationals and Dodgers over the past several seasons. “I was like; ‘how’d you figure out how to hit those?’”

“Good for him. I hope he can hit those pitches. He put two really good swings on the bat. You actually want that, you want to experience failure, you want guys to hit your pitches."

According to Scherzer, dominating during the spring doesn't help him in the long-run.

"You go in and chew up everybody up, it doesn’t matter," he said. "You get tested; you get challenged. They get in the box and do damage; you can take some of it and learn and continue to get better. For me, there’s some good things I did today and I just have to build off of it.”

For the 37-year-old, who is entering his 15th season in the big-leagues, there is one thing that today's empty stadium was missing in order to help him build adrenaline.

“It felt good,” Scherzer said of his first sim game of camp. “I’ve been throwing sim games, and throwing live BPs (in the offseason) with the turtle, but once you get a live umpire back there it feels a little bit more real. The intensity goes up a little bit.

"Now, I want fans. I want people yelling at me about how much I suck," he said. "I can’t wait."

Mets fans are longing to watch Scherzer and fellow Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom pitch in the same rotation for the first time during the 2022 regular season. And while they will have to wait a few more weeks, Scherzer is looking forward to the cheers, and boos to properly charge him up when he takes the hill.

In the meantime, he will be taking any bumps in the road as a learning experience to prepare for the 2022 campaign.

Starter Depth

In addition to Scherzer, David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Jordan Yamamoto all pitched in today's sim game as well.

Peterson opposed Scherzer, throwing 25 pitches across two innings. The left-hander allowed no runs and two hits, while striking out two batters. He also hit Robinson Cano with a pitch, who stepped back in the box and flied out to right afterwards.

Megill, who like Peterson is also competing for a spot in the rotation, was impressive in three innings of work. Megill did now allow a run, gave up two hits and recorded seven ground ball outs.

As for Yamamoto, he was also solid. The right-hander picked up three strikeouts and walked one hitter.

Daily Marte Update

Starling Marte (oblique) has yet to participate in workouts thus far. But according to manager Buck Showalter, the outfielder is feeling better and doing more each day.

Marte first told the Mets that he was feeling some tightness in his oblique area about eight days ago. For now, he is day-to-day, but his X-Ray and imaging results came back clean earlier in the week.