Washington, D.C. - On paper, the matchup between National League Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom and runner-up Max Scherzer had the chance to be the season's first great pitchers' duel -- if only for a few hours, until the start of the American League equivalent featuring Blake Snell and Justin Verlander. These kind of things don't always come to fruition, but it's fair to write that Thursday's contest between the New York Mets and Washington Nationals -- a 2-0 Mets victory -- delivered on its promise (box score).

Scherzer took the mound first, of course, and seemed to be in a good place early. He struck out each of the first two batters he faced, and would circle back for a third to complete the frame. Before Scherzer could do that, however, he ran into a speed bump in the form of Robinson Cano. In his first official at-bat as a member of the Mets, Cano jumped the yard for his second career home run against Scherzer and to put New York up by an early 1-0 score. In time, that would prove to be too much for the Nationals lineup to overcome.

Not that Scherzer didn't keep his club in the game. He would throw 109 pitches on the afternoon, recording 23 outs and permitting three walks and just two hits: the homer, and a single to old pal Wilson Ramos. Scherzer struck out 12 batters and induced some 24 swings-and-misses -- 11 of which came on his mid-90s fastball. Unfortunately, for Scherzer, he would later be charged with a second run that his bullpen allowed to cross the plate.

For as overpowering as Scherzer was, deGrom will go down as being just a little better.

Unlike Scherzer, deGrom avoided meaningful damage. Just one of the five hits he allowed went for extra bases (a Victor Robles double), and he issued one walk on 93 pitches across six innings before being lifted for a pinch-hitter after escaping a hairy situation against Juan Soto:

DeGrom pitched primarily off his fastball-slider combination, throwing those a combined 75 times. He notched 11 whiffs on those pitches. DeGrom also generated five swing-throughs on his changeup -- an impressive feat given he threw 13 on the afternoon, per Statcast.

It was fitting, in a sense, that deGrom found himself in the familiar position of having pitched well and received little offensive support. In fact, deGrom set a new record on Thursday, tallying his 30th consecutive start in which he allowed three runs or fewer to score:

Throughout that streak, deGrom has found himself or the Mets as a team on the losing end far too often -- New York entered the day with an 11-18 record in his last 29 starts. That wasn't the case on Thursday, though, as the Mets instead took the first game of the year -- and, by extension, the season's first great pitchers' duel.