Max Scherzer knows injury can get a lot worse: ‘Just don’t break’

When Max Scherzer takes the mound on Tuesday in Cincinnati in an attempt to turn the Mets — and his own — season around, he’ll be doing so while still pitching with discomfort below his right scapula, around his shoulder blade.

“I’m doing everything I can to get through this without having it linger through the rest of the season,” Scherzer said before the team left for the road trip. “I’m in a good spot … I’m not going backward [with the injury], I’m moving forward. That’s the good part.”

It didn’t look good, with Scherzer pounded with six runs coming on eight hits and two homers in Detroit in his first start back from a 10-game suspension for using a banned substance.

“That outing sucked, but I didn’t get hurt,” Scherzer said. “The first part of progress of getting through an injury is being able to pitch and not get hurt.”

Still, he’s not completely healthy and spent several weeks on the IL in 2019 with the Nationals with a similar — but more serious — injury to the area.

“That’s how bad this can get,” Scherzer said. “I respect that. I’ve learned from that and I’m trying like hell to not have that happen.”

With the Mets already dealing with injuries in their rotation to Carlos Carrasco (elbow) — scheduled to make a rehab start with Double-A Binghamton on Tuesday — and Jose Quintana (rib), as well as Justin Verlander just coming back from a teres major strain, Scherzer believes it’s more beneficial for him to pitch while not 100 percent healthy than take time off.

“Just don’t break,” Scherzer said of his goal while pitching in his current condition. “I’m trying like hell not to join the IL. I’m fighting through this and doing everything I can. But this is the big leagues and no one cares if you’re hurt. You’ve got to go out there and perform, so I get it.”

In the start against the Tigers, Scherzer’s velocity dipped on his four-seam fastball and his spin rates were down.

He attributed the decrease in his fastball velocity to being due to managing the back and making sure he didn’t aggravate it.

As general manager Billy Eppler noted last week, Scherzer has shown an ability in other appearances this season to still throw hard and expressed no concern about whether the 38-year-old would return to form — blaming his struggles in part on an irregular workload due to injury and the suspension.

But Eppler acknowledged that perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Mets slow start to the season has been the underperformance of their starting rotation.

After another poor outing by a starter in Sunday’s loss to Colorado — this time from Joey Lucchesi, pitching on three days’ rest because of a lack of suitable options — the Mets found their rotation toward the bottom of the league in several categories.

Through Sunday, they had gotten the second-lowest amount of innings out of their starters this season (170 ¹/₃), according to Fangraphs.

The same was true when it came to home runs, as only the A’s rotation has given up homers at a higher rate than the Mets 1.90 per nine innings.

And the rotation’s rate of 4.6 walks per nine innings was the worst in the majors, to go along with an ERA of 5.34