Jacob deGrom had a typically strong outing against the rival Washington Nationals on Friday, but it didn’t come without a cost.
Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets $110 million man departed the game in the first inning with what was later diagnosed a right hamstring strain.
The outfielder, who missed six weeks earlier this season with a similar injury in his left hamstring, may have played his last game of the 2017 season.
“I think what it was, when I was getting a massage, it was like a nerve right below my glutes was maybe rubbed a little bit the wrong way,” Cespedes said. “[This season] has been very frustrating because I know how much work I put into this offseason to come in ready this year, probably more than ever before, and I have just had injury after injury. This one particularly was so frustrating because I think right before this I had felt the best I had felt all season long.”
In the top of the first, Brandon Nimmo walked to begin the game and advanced to second when Cespedes followed suit.
Asdrubal Cabrera ripped a single into right field, plating Nimmo but Cespedes was hurt by the time he arrived at first. Matt Reynolds replaced him on the base paths as “La Potencia” went in for tests.
“Here we go again,” deGrom thought to himself. “Unbelievable. We’ve lost Yo and Michael Conforto, probably our two best players.”
DeGrom took the mound in the bottom of the first night of “Players’ Weekend,” trying to shake his team falling like flies behind him while nursing a sore foot.
The right-hander delivered and gave fans a small sense of joy, going 7 2/3 innings allowing just one run on five hits while fanning 10 batters.
In the eighth inning, the Mets gave deGrom some breathing room as Reynolds drove in a run with a single up the middle and Dominic Smith making it a then 3-0 game with a sacrifice fly.
Juan Lagares drove in the fourth run of the game in the ninth with a single to give AJ Ramos some insurance to close out the game.
It wasn’t easy for the Mets interim closer, who gave up a leadoff homer and loaded the bases before striking out Andrew Stevenson looking as he erupted into celebration.
With the win, deGrom made team history, becoming just the fourth pitcher to have multiple 200 strikeout campaigns in blue and orange. Tom Seaver (1968-76), Dwight Gooden (1984-86, 1990) and David Cone (1988, 1990-92) also accomplished the feat.
