In his final start before the trade deadline, Max Scherzer delivered the kind of outing the Mets have been hoping to see more of this season.
But after the Mets’ 5-1 win over Washington on Friday night at Citi Field, Scherzer’s future in Queens, as well as that of several of his teammates, is still unclear.
Every once in a while, the team reminds you of what they were supposed to be.
Against last-place Washington, Scherzer shook off his homer-happy trend and pitched seven splendid innings and Pete Alonso crushed two long home runs and drove in five runs.
The victory still left the Mets five games under .500, just a day removed from trading their closer, David Robertson, to division-rival Miami for a pair of young minor league prospects, with more stripping of the roster almost certain to come before the deadline arrives Tuesday.
“We’re trying to stay as competitive [as we can],” manager Buck Showalter said before the game. “It’s still there for them. … We’ll try to overcome the games that we’re behind to get where we want to get.”
With two more games against the last-place Nationals followed by three in Kansas City against the dreadful Royals, the Mets might soon find themselves in the middle of a winning streak.
But the front office showed Thursday night it would not be fooled by a handful of wins.
As Mark Canha said Thursday: “We probably should have played better earlier [in the season] if we wanted to be buyers instead of sellers.’’
And if Scherzer had more starts like he did on Friday, perhaps the Mets would be in a different spot.
Instead, his solid showing on Friday, when he allowed one run — on a solo homer in the seventh — was more of an aberration than the norm.
In Scherzer’s previous start, at Boston, he allowed a season-high four homers.
He had given up nine home runs in his previous four outings.
Against the Nationals, he allowed just one run and struck out seven before Adam Ottavino replaced him to start the eighth inning.
Scherzer gave up a leadoff single to Keibert Ruiz in the second inning and a one-out double to Luis Garcia before he got Ildemaro Vargas to fly out to shallow center, keeping Ruiz at third.
A walk to former Met Dominic Smith loaded the bases for Alex Call, who grounded to third.
Brett Baty bounced the throw to first, but Alonso scooped it for the final out to keep the game scoreless.
Scherzer then cruised through the fifth inning, when he pitched around a pair of singles.
The Mets’ offense, after being blanked until the eighth inning of their win Thursday, was held scoreless through four innings on Friday by left-hander MacKenzie Gore.
Baty walked to open the bottom of the fifth against Gore, who then walked Francisco Alvarez on four pitches.
After Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor both flied to left, Alonso delivered a colossal 453-foot three-run homer to left-center to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
Scherzer avoided giving up a home run — or a run, for that matter — until Garcia took him deep to center to open the seventh.
Smith tagged Scherzer for a one-out double later in the inning, but the veteran right-hander retired the next two batters to preserve the two-run lead.
Alonso hit his second homer of the night in the seventh inning. It was his 30th home run of the season. Only the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani and Braves’ Matt Olson have more.
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