DeGrom in Cy form against Scherzer, Nats

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jacob deGrom’s final start of the spring will come Friday against these same Nationals. That’s unless manager Luis Rojas thinks better of the Mets ace facing the same opponent three times in 11 days, including the season opener.

The alternative would be pitching deGrom in a “B” game in camp. Either way, the plan is to extend him to 90 pitches, preparing him for the bright lights of opening night on April 1 in Washington.

And Max Scherzer is again the scheduled mound opponent.

On Sunday, deGrom was the better of the former Cy Young Award winners. He pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and kept his velocity mostly in the 99-101 mph range, as Scherzer was struggling to keep the ball in the park.

Scherzer surrendered homers to Michael Conforto and Francisco Lindor and departed after five innings in which he allowed four earned runs.

“I enjoy going out there and competing against

Max,” deGrom said.

“Those are normally fun games and we both love competing, so go out there and try to leave it all on the field and whoever had the better day is probably going to win that game.”

DeGrom became the first Mets pitcher to take an atbat this exhibition season, grounding out and striking out in his two plate appearances against Scherzer. Pitchers will again hit in the NL this season unless an eleventh-hour deal is struck between MLB and the MLBPA to implement the universal DH. Last season the DH was used in the NL.

Count deGrom among the proponents of the pitcher batting.

“I feel like it’s a part of baseball,” he said. “I have been in the National League my whole career and kind of missed it a little bit last year, so it was fun to get back out there.” DeGrom, who threw 67 pitches — he was removed with two outs in the fifth to allow Miguel Castro an opportunity to enter in the middle of an inning — has pitched to a 0.66 ERA in four starts this spring.

“I felt good,” deGrom said. “There were a couple of pitches, two strikes that I left over the middle that got hit pretty hard, so it’s just getting those where I want them. It was good to go out there and throw [67] pitches, because that is when you are going to make some really important outs.”