NEW YORK — If he had his way, Max Scherzer would much have preferred to do this any of the two previous times he faced the Mets, either on July 31 here at Citi Field or on Labor Day at Nationals Park. Those series were turning points in the Nationals’ season and played major roles in their eventual handing over of the NL East title to New York. When he took the mound Saturday on a frigid, wind-whipped night made for a late-season game of great importance, nothing really was on the line.
That shouldn’t, however, take anything away from what Scherzer did accomplish.