Last night, as the story has gone practically the entire season, Jacob deGrom started a game for the Mets and flat-out dominated the opposition.
Likewise, thanks to some lousy run support and a solo homer from Willy Adames in the fifth inning, the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t need much to keep deGrom away from another hard-earned win.
Even with the night ending with a towering walk-off grand slam off the bat of Jose Bautista, deGrom remains just 5-4 on the season – now winless dating back to June 18 and still looking for his second win since a May 18 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The righty managed to lower his ERA to 1.79, tossing eight innings of one-run, four-hit ball, striking out eight and walking one. Even so, the last swing of the game produced more supporting runs than deGrom had received in any start since his last win at Coors Field, and before that a 5-1 victory in San Diego on April 27.
The narrative that governed deGrom’s masterpiece on Friday was really no different from those of his past performances that, even if equally stellar, remained for naught in light of the dysfunction of the team.
Last night, the sticking point was a baserunning mistake that, with better foresight from third base coach Glenn Sherlock, would have possibly allowed Wilmer Flores to score a go-ahead run later in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Instead, Flores, by a solid eight feet, was thrown out at home plate, turning a third-and-second, one-out scoring opportunity into a two-out crapshoot, with Todd Frazier at third and Devin Mesoraco the last shot at deGrom pitching the seventh with any sort of lead.
This is not to say deGrom himself didn’t have his struggles in the thick of the game.
Just a week removed from a start in which the righty admitted to tiring out and losing a feel for his pitches, deGrom’s fifth inning followed a similarly disheartening path.
Although he was caught stealing shortly thereafter, Daniel Robertson led off the frame with a line-drive hit to left off a fastball that registered at just 93.6 mph.
Adames’ homer followed, and after pinch-hitter C.J. Cron hashed a walk out of an eight-pitch at-bat – one in which Jacob had gone ahead 0-2 before missing with two sliders, a fastball, and a changeup – deGrom, at 68 pitches, was forced to make due against the leadoff man, Kevin Kiermaier.
The ace jumped ahead 0-2, but again stumbled, missing with a curve and then yanking a fastball inside to even the count.
The events that followed spoke to the right-hander’s innate ability to rise above adverse situations not only in terms of the specific at-bat, but also as it related to the rest of deGrom’s night.
Taking off just the right amount of heat, deGrom fooled Kiermaier with a perfectly-spotted changeup, and churned out three scoreless innings on 32 pitches.
A slider that plunked Carlos Gomez was the only blemish in a hitless effort, and only eight other pitches missed the strike zone in this stretch. DeGrom managed strikeouts of Robertson, Mallex Smith, and Wilson Ramos, even dialing the fastball back up to 96.8 mph at one point. The last three innings weren’t a matter of a pitcher sneaking out of trouble.
Instead, just as it’s been since he first burst onto the scene in 2014, deGrom matured and put his name on his work with another remarkable outing.
In a postgame presser, Rays manager Kevin Cash sang the praises of deGrom, calling him a “one-man show” and adding that “we couldn’t get anything going against him at all, which I think the league has proven over the last couple of months, years, whatever you wanna say.
“He’s pretty talented; he’s pretty special… probably better [than expected], the way he continued to navigate… when you’re throwing 70% strikes with that kinda stuff, you’re gonna have some good nights.”
DeGrom has now allowed three or fewer runs in 15 consecutive starts, the longest streak from a Met pitcher since Dwight Gooden (24) in 1985.
With his 142nd strikeout of the night, the Stetson University alum is now the fifth pitcher in franchise history to reach such a plateau before the All-Star break, joining Gooden, Matt Harvey, David Cone, and Tom Seaver.
With another phenomenal, seamless start in the books, there’s no reason for deGrom to miss out on another game before the first half comes to a close.
Throw in acting general manager John Ricco’s recent comments downplaying the likelihood of a deadline trade involving the ace given the incoming “short rebuild,” and there’s suddenly plenty of reason to be hopeful about – at the very least – what deGrom could give the Mets going forward.
