Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young winner, walked from the mound to the dugout for the final time earlier than anyone expected.
He received a standing ovation from some of the 16,734 fans in attendance at Comerica Park while trotting to the dugout, but aside from the applause for his presence in the ballpark where he used to dominate, he didn’t have anything to be pleased about in his return from a suspension.
“It’s cool, bittersweet,” Scherzer said. “It’s tough to have something feel good when you don’t pitch well, but I’m very appreciative of the fans here and their support.”
Scherzer — coming off a suspension for violating MLB’s foreign substance policy — was tagged for six runs and chased by his former team before he could complete the fourth inning. The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Mets, 8-1, in Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader.
The Tigers (12-17) swept the doubleheader and can sweep the three-game series with a victory Thursday.
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Facing Scherzer, the Tigers scored two runs in the first inning, one run in the second inning and three runs in the fourth inning. The offense combined for six runs on eight hits and one walk against him.
Scherzer was forced to throw 75 pitches in 3⅓ innings.
He struck out three batters.
“Really good at-bats,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s tough. He hadn’t been out there for a while, so we didn’t really know what style of approach he was going to take. We had to feel him out a little bit, and our at-bats got better and better. To be able to put a couple runs on the board, put some pressure on him, opened the game for us.”
The run scoring started with the first batter in the bottom of the first inning, as Zach McKinstry worked a five-pitch walk. A single from Riley Greene put two runners on and opened the door for an early opportunity.
Nick Maton capitalized.
He hit a one-out sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead, and Spencer Torkelson extended the lead to 2-0 with a two-out double to left-center field. Torkelson, the 2020 No. 1 overall pick, turned on an inside fastball and produced a 102 mph exit velocity. It was another one of those big hits the Tigers have been missing for most of the season.
“Finally, it feels good to get them,” McKinstry said. “It feels like a shift has turned in our way, and it’s a great feeling. Guys are getting big hits.”
But the scoring didn’t stop there.
In the second inning, Eric Haase hit a hanging up-and-away slider for a solo home run. He also hit a homer in Game 1 of the doubleheader, a 6-5 victory behind Haase’s five RBIs, to become the first Tiger to hit a homer in both legs of a doubleheader since Torkelson in October 2022.
“I’ve watched him pitch a lot,” said Haase, who grew up as a Tigers fan. “I want to say, ‘OK, it’s just another one,’ but it’s obviously pretty cool. Tons of respect. It’s another one of those guys where, year in and year out, it seems like he’s getting better and better and better. If anything, to hit a mistake from him was awesome.”
The Tigers chased Scherzer in the fourth inning when Andy Ibáñez and McKinstry delivered back-to-back one-out singles. Before those at-bats, though, Akil Baddoo singled and Matt Vierling crushed Scherzer’s fastball for a 404-foot two-run home run to left-center field, giving the Tigers a 5-1 lead.
After McKinstry’s single, the Mets replaced Scherzer with left-handed reliever Zach Muckenhirn. Greene drove in the final run of the inning, putting the Tigers ahead 6-1, with an RBI single to right field.
Scherzer finished with 10 whiffs on 41 swings.
He generated just 12 called strikes.
“I didn’t do a good job of locating,” Scherzer told reporters. “I was spraying the ball in the first (inning), and then I didn’t pitch well out of the stretch. … That’s where some of the mistakes where, and that’s an adjustment I got to make.”
Lorenzen pitches around trouble
Right-hander Michael Lorenzen put himself in some tough situations.
And he pitched out of them.
The 31-year-old, who signed a one-year, $8.5 million contract in the offseason, allowed one run on four hits and two walks with one strikeout in seven innings, throwing 67 of 96 pitches for strikes.
“Pitching with the lead is nice,” Hinch said. “He also settled down and just executed pitches. He didn’t overcomplicate things. He didn’t stray from what he does best. He used his weapons.”
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The Mets’ leadoff hitter reached safely against Lorenzen in four of his seven innings: second inning (Pete Alonso, single), third (Francisco Alvarez, fielding error), fourth (Alonso, walk) and sixth (Jeff McNeil, walk).
The only run scored in the fourth inning, trimming the Tigers’ margin to 3-1, when Daniel Vogelbach ripped a two-strike changeup for double to right field. On the hit, Alonso scored from first base.
Lorenzen received help from his defense in the first inning: Vierling threw out Francisco Lindor trying to take second base on a hit to right field. Shortstop Javier Báez, one of Lindor’s closest friends, completed the play with a spectacular tag.
“Definitely, in the first game, we made a couple of silly mistakes,” Hinch said. “There’s going to be an error or two. We’re not perfect. Nobody is. But the defensive efficiency part of our team and the awareness and the execution have been really, really good the last couple of weeks.”
In the sixth, Lorenzen eliminated a leadoff walk by getting Alonso to line into a double play on a comebacker. He retired all three batters he faced in the seventh: Mark Canha (groundout), Brett Baty (groundout) and Luis Guillorme (groundout).
Lorenzen, who dropped his ERA to 5.14 after his fourth start, generated six whiffs (two fastballs, two sliders, two changeups) and 22 called strikes. His fastball averaged 92.7 mph.
Bullpen, extra runs seal the deal
After Lorenzen, the Tigers turned to left-handed reliever Tyler Holton.
Holton fired a scoreless eighth inning, and then, the Tigers added two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out, two-run single from Ibáñez. Those runs extended the lead to 8-1 as the Tigers rolled out right-hander Jason Foley for the ninth inning.
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Foley, who has been dynamite all season in a high-leverage role, continued to shine, retiring all three batters he faced.
The Tigers didn’t pitch reliever Brendan White, their 27th man for the doubleheader, in Wednesday’s games against the Mets. After Game 2, the Tigers sent him back to Triple-A Toledo.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.