The Mets’ starting pitching has been dominant for the entire series against the Cubs, and last night’s starter, Jacob deGrom, wasn’t any different in Game 3 at Wrigley Field.
He fired seven strong innings while allowing only two runs and four hits. He also struck out seven and earned his third win of the postseason.
While Kyle Schwarber homered early off deGrom in the first inning, he recovered quickly and adjusted his game plan by throwing more off speed pitches.
“I think I talked to Travis and I noticed that they were hitting the fastball pretty well,” deGrom explained. “So I said, hey, let’s try to throw some off speed up there early on and see if we can get early contact, and that ended up working for me.”
“In the third inning, I said ‘If we get five out of this guy tonight, we’ll be lucky’,” Terry Collins said. “Then all of a sudden in the fourth and fifth inning, he started making pitches.”
With his excellent performance last night, he now has a 1.80 ERA in the postseason to go along with 27 strikeouts in 20 innings pitched.
He is now only the second pitcher in franchise history to win three consecutive postseason starts. The only other Mets pitcher to do so was Jerry Koosman during the 1969 and 1973 playoffs.
Additionally, his 27 strikeouts are the third most in team history trailing only Tom Seaver‘s 35 punchouts in 1973 and Al Leiter‘s 31 strikeouts in 2000. It looks like deGrom has a strong chance to surpass both as the Mets are just one win away from the World Series
DeGrom has helped push the Mets to the brink of the Fall Classic, and they will now turn to Steven Matz to try and complete the sweep. When asked if he had any advice for the rookie left-hander, deGrom told reporters he should just try to keep it simple.
“I haven’t said anything to him yet, but if I said anything, I would say go out there and stick with his game plan. Not try to do too much, keep it simple and just try to keep the ball down in the zone and get early outs.”
