Homers haunt Max Scherzer again as Nats fall to Mets

11:48 PM ET

NEW YORK — At some point, abnormal becomes the new normal. For Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals, that time seems to have arrived.

On Tuesday night at Citi Field, Scherzer allowed the Mets just three hits over 6 1/3 innings, but two of those hits landed in the seats, accounting for the only runs in a 2-0 Nats loss in the opener of a key three-game series between NL East rivals.

With the two home runs, Scherzer has now served up a whopping 13 gopher balls already this season. That’s the most in the National League and tied for most in the majors. If you look at the guys who round out the top five in the NL, you see names like Jon Niese, Alfredo Simon, Patrick Corbin, and Chase Anderson. Between them, that quartet owns one less Cy Young award than Scherzer does and will earn a combined $14 million this season, or about $8 million less than Scherzer will make all by himself. Clearly, one of these things is not like the others. And it’s not like this is some brand new problem that can be explained away with the old “small sample size” argument.

Nationals ace Max Scherzer gave up his 12th and 13th home runs of the season in a 2-0 loss to the Mets. Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports

In 24 starts since the 2015 All-Star break, Scherzer has now …

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