Most pundits agreed that Buck Showalter started the series against the Padres with an undeniable advantage over his opponent Bob Melvin, that is to say, to be able to count on two of the best pitchers in the Majors, as part of a a short series of two or three games.
The Padres offense was quick to turn that advantage in the visitors’ favor by jumping on starter Max Scherzer’s rapids in the opening moments of Game 1 of this series. The result was fully on the side of Bob Melvin’s men, who won easily by the score of 7-1.
Josh Bell, Trent Grisham, Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado all hit the long ball against Scherzer, who looked like he had no answer to provide the power of the Padres in the opening game between the two teams.
However, the locals were pumped up in anticipation of this first confrontation supported by a crowd enthusiastic to see theirs recover after a fishtail end to the season.
The Padres batters had a completely different scenario in mind to present to the crowd massed at Citi Field and the Californian team took the lead in raising the curtains.
Yu Darvish, who had the ball in hand for the start of this series for San Diego, eclipsed his counterpart by dominating Mets hitters through the first seven innings of the night. The Japanese allowed just one run on six hits. Darvish was the victim of a solo home run by Eduardo Escobar in the fifth inning.
Buck Showalter, the Mets manager, has no choice now but to allow Jacob deGrom to prevent the Padres from humiliating his people in the second meeting of this series. Showalter had planned to give the ball to Chris Bassitt in this second game if his team won Friday night, but the Padres decided otherwise. The other Mets ace will face Blake Snell.
Acquired from the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline, star player Juan Soto didn’t need to make a difference during this game, he was cleared of the scorecard.
The Padres were opportunistic in scoring their seven runs on just eight hits. Shots that traveled long distances greatly advantaged them.
The second chapter of this series will begin tonight.
