At the ready: Grandy renews rivalry with bang

NEW YORK — The conversation was simple, and so was the message.

Be ready to hit, Mets hitting coach Kevin Long told Curtis Granderson. Match Max Scherzer’s intensity, and be ready to hit.

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Granderson was ready. He walked up to the plate against the Nationals’ star right-hander and hit the first pitch he saw over the right-field fence. He gave the Mets the only run they would really need in what became a 2-0 win Tuesday night.

“He throws strikes with his fastball, and he tends to start the game with a fastball,” Granderson said. “I was just trying to get a good pitch.”

Scherzer throws plenty of fastballs, and not all of them are hittable — as the Mets found out in their last meeting against Scherzer on Oct. 3, when they were no-hit. Good Major League hitters, however, miss plenty of them, as proven by his 20-strikeout masterpiece last Wednesday against the Tigers and even by his 10 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings Tuesday.

Granderson got one to hit, and he didn’t miss.

It was a huge hit for Granderson, who had …

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