Scherzer did all he could on the mound, but Nats come up short

Right-hander Max Scherzer did everything in his power to give the Nationals every opportunity to win their season opener Thursday against the New York Mets before a sellout crowd at Nats Park.

But fellow Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom was just a bit better.

Scherzer allowed a solo homer to Robinson Canó in the first and later an insurance run in the eighth in the Mets' 2-0 win over the Nats on Thursday.

Canó's blast over the left-center field wall on a 1-1 changeup came with two outs in the top of the first to give New York the early lead.

"I felt like I was executing pitches," Scherzer said. "The only pitch I didn't quite execute the way I wanted to was the cutter. It was good, but I wasn't executing it exactly the way I wanted to. Every other pitch, I felt like I was executing it or missing the spot that I wanted to, so from that standpoint, this is a great first start for me to go out there again and make a little adjustment on the cutter and go out there and compete again."

But everything else was stunningly impressive. Scherzer struck out 12 batters. It marked the 83rd time in his career he has struck out 10 or more batters in a game. Last season, Scherzer struck out 12 or more five times. The 12 strikeouts are a franchise record on opening day for Scherzer.

Scherzer surrendered just two hits, the Canó homer and a two-out Wilson Ramos single in the fourth. He walked three, including pinch-hitter Dominic Smith, who came around to scored the second run for the Mets in the eighth that provided an important cushion.

"Obviously, you want a little more away," Scherzer said of the changeup that Cano handled. "It just stayed a little bit more middle. He's a great hitter. He just put a great swing on it, (missed) by a little bit too much over the middle. You do that in this league, you get burned."

Scherzer's fourth Nationals opening day start would be remembered more fondly if only the Nats could have figured out the most recent National League Cy Young winner in deGrom. The Mets right-hander was stellar, reaching 97 mph in striking out 10 batters and scattering five hits over six innings. He allowed no runs and one walk to earn the victory.

"We played hard today as a whole," Scherzer said. "We got some chances against Jake. He made some good pitches today and just got out of some jams. Sometimes you just got to tip your hat. He pitched well. From their offensive standpoint, Canó had a good swing. I left that pitch a little middle and he put a good swing and was able to hit a solo shot. There's a lot of good from our end that happened today but it just wasn't enough to get it done today."

Somewhat surprisingly in the bottom of the seventh, manager Davey Martinez did not pinch-hit for Scherzer with two outs and down by one run. Scherzer struck out, but did get through the eighth despite feeling a bit like he was running on fumes at 109 pitches.

"Yeah, that's the importance of the previous start of trying to get my pinch count as high as you can," Scherzer said. "I still felt like I had some pitches left in me. I did feel fatigued kind of there in the eighth. I could feel I was really hitting a wall at the end and was able to just execute some changeups late there in the eighth to get some strikeouts. That was the end of my line right there."

"I told Davey: 'Hey I'm good to go if you want me,' " he said. "Hey, manage the game the way you want to manage the game. I understand if you got to pinch-hit for me. He said that's fine. From my standpoint, I was just mentally ready to go out pitch the eighth and that was the extent of that conversation."

Martinez said he knew Scherzer could handle getting close to 110 pitches.

"This is why we pushed him in spring training to get (his pitch count) up into the upper 90s," Martinez said. "He was built to throw 110 pitches today. He had an extra day and he said he felt really good."

Scherzer did everything he could to deliver a win for the Nats on opening day. Unfortunately, the offense could not take advantage of the opportunity provided to make it a perfect beginning to 2019.