Padres romp by Mets as Max Scherzer disappoints in wild-card start

NEW YORK — The dreams of Mets fans were supposed to come true on Friday night. When Max Scherzer signed a three-year, $130 million contract with New York, the wild-card series opener was the type of game Mets fans imagined the future Hall of Famer would dominate, an important moment setting the tone for a team ahead of a playoff run.

Instead, those fantasies were shattered as Scherzer unraveled in his start against the San Diego Padres, allowing seven earned runs on seven hits — including giving up a career-high four home runs — while striking out just four batters in 4⅔ innings pitched in a 7-1 loss by New York.

Hours after Scherzer left the Citi Field mound, the moments of struggle played on a loop in his head.

«This is going to be a late night for me,» Scherzer said.

The damage started in the first inning when Padres designated hitter Josh Bell slugged a 419-foot opposite-field home run that scored Jurickson Profar. Outfielder Trent Grisham added on in the second inning, hitting a home run to right field to extend the Padres' lead to 3-0. But the final straw for Scherzer's evening came in the fifth, when Profar hit a home run to right field, scoring Ha-Seong Kim and Austin Nola, followed by a Manny Machado solo blast to left-center-field, sending the Mets starter off to a chorus of boos from the 41,621 fans at Citi Field.

The Mets — who won 101 games in the regular season, led the division for 174 days but ended up as a wild-card team — now face elimination on Saturday with the Padres sending former Cy Young award winner Blake Snell to the mound.

«We ended up with the same record as somebody else in our division, and we're getting an opportunity now,» said Mets manager Buck Showalter. «We'll get one tomorrow to right