After pitching a record 26 consecutive quality starts, New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom pitched his second consecutive non-quality start in a 7-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Coming off a poor performance Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins where deGrom allowed six earned runs in just four innings pitched, Jacob was looking to right the ship and help the Mets win an important early season series against the defending NL East champions.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

DeGrom’s performance against the Braves was certainly better than his start was against the Twins, but it was not the dominant effort that Mets fans are accustomed to seeing. He labored through five innings, throwing 114 pitches allowing eight full counts to the 24 batters he faced. He rarely threw strike one and allowed four walks which is a rarity for Jacob.

His line for the game was five innings pitched, five hits, three runs, four walks, nine strikeouts and two home runs allowed. Jacob now has allowed five homers in 2019, all in his last two starts, after allowing only ten for all of 2018 spanning 32 starts. Jacob is now 2-2 and is pitching to a 3.68 ERA. The loss snapped a streak of eight straight road starts in which he was unbeaten dating to last August 13. He was 5-0 with a 1.27 ERA during the streak.

DeGrom allowed a walk to Josh Donaldson in the first but escaped the frame without allowing a run. In the second, Braves right fielder Nick Markakis led off with a home run off a deGrom slider to tie the game at 1-1. Ozzie Albies led off the third with a single then moved to third on a stolen base and a poor throw by Mets catcher Wilson Ramos. He was driven in by Ronald Acuna Jr. to give Atlanta a 2-1 lead. DeGrom got the final two outs of the first and all three outs in the second on strike outs.

Jacob finally has a one-two-three inning in the fourth where he only needed 12 pitches to retire the Braves. But his total pitch count stood at 83 pitches as Atlanta ran deep counts and fouled off pitch after pitch.

The fifth inning would be deGrom’s last of the evening. Donaldson led off the inning with an eight pitch at-bat, again spoiling many good deGrom pitches. On the last pitch he saw, Donaldson lined a homer to left to increase Atlanta’s lead to 3-1. Jake would throw another 31 pitches in the frame to end his night with a season high 114 pitches thrown.

During the telecast, Mets manager Mickey Callaway was interviewed by ESPN. When asked about his ace, he said that deGrom had “good stuff” and that the Braves were making like difficult by “spoiling Jake’s pitches”. He also noted that the Braves batters “ran-up the pitch count” on Jake throughout the entire five inning stint.

The issue of deGrom potentially tipping pitches came up during the post-game interview with Callaway. The Mets skipper said, “I haven’t seen anything like that…you start to wonder sometimes when they’re taking better swings than they normally do, and fouling pitches off is something you look for when they may be tipping, but we’re not seeing anything from the dugout. I’m sure we’ll go in like we always do after every game and see if we notice anything after a game, but I didn’t notice anything in-game.”

DeGrom also did not feel he was tipping pitches and commented, “look at the pitches they’re hitting, they’re in the middle of the plate…when I make my pitch, I’m getting the swings I want. But these past two, just haven’t been making the pitches I need to make”.

As far his performance, deGrom said, “I’m not really throwing the ball where I want to right now”. He said repeatedly during the post-game chat with reporters that he could not make locate his pitch “where he wanted to when he wanted to.”  He added rather alarmingly that “I don’t know if it’s something mechanical…I’ll have to get in there and look and figure it out.” This is potentially an issue because deGrom admitted to reporters he seldom looks at video but will do so before his next start.

Throughout his last two starts, deGrom has been charged with 13 hits, nine runs, five walks and five home runs, and the reigning Cy Young Award winner is unsure as to why. He is scheduled to make his next start next weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals. Hopefully, video sessions and practice with pitching coach Dave Eiland can rectify this hopefully mere glitch so Jake can become the deGrominator once again.