New York Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom entered his start on Thursday versus the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field with a 2.56 ERA on the season, fourth-best in the National League, and a 1.88 ERA since the turning point of his season, May 22 (the best mark in MLB over that span among qualified starters).
With the Mets reeling, having lost five consecutive games and two in a row to one of the teams they’re chasing in the NL Wild Card race — the Cubbies — the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner played his role of funk-stopper to perfection, right up until the sky came falling down in the seventh.
DeGrom retired Chicago in order in the first, striking out Kris Bryant on four consecutive four-alarm four-seamers to close out the frame.
J.D. Davis put the Mets ahead 1-0 with his 18th dinger of the season in the bottom of the first, but deGrom allowed a long solo home run to the Cubs’ backup first baseman, Victor Caratini, with one out in the second to tie the game at one.
Caratini’s dinger could have been more costly if Juan Lagares hadn’t made a sparkling play on Javier Baez‘ frozen rope to center field in the previous at-bat. It’s certainly nice to have Lagares’ elite defensive dynamic roaming the Mets outfield again.
Jake worked another 1-2-3 inning in the third, striking out Chicago’s backstop, Jonathan Lucroy swinging at a 92 MPH slider that took the exact same path as the first two four-seamers he saw (oof; good luck with that).
Nicholas Castellanos went down swinging at a darting-away slider to start the fourth, and Baez could do nothing but stare at a 99 MPH third strike on the outside part of the plate to close out that frame, then Caratini, Addison Russell, and Tony Kemp went down in order in the fifth to make it 11 consecutive Cubs retired by deGrom since Caratini’s second-inning home run.
After another perfect sixth and a strikeout of Castellanos to start the seventh — 15 in a row retired — deGrom buckled. Bryant reached on a deflected infield single off Amed Rosario, Baez added a base hit, and Caratini launched his second home run of the night — this one a dagger through the heart of this team and its fans — into the Coca-Cola seats in upper-right to put Chicago ahead, 4-1.
DeGrom would get through the frame, but the air had been let out of the Mets’ balloon by that point. Jake’s night was done after seven mostly-outstanding frames, allowing four runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. His ERA on the season increased to 2.66.
After the game, deGrom spoke to the Mets’ media corps, lamenting another wasted opportunity for this scuffling ballclub while remaining focused on the big picture (video via SNY).
“[This team] takes the same mindset every day, and that’s to win a baseball game. It’s frustrating when you lose; nobody wants to lose […] Tough little stretch there. We’ve got to start playing good baseball and winning these games because they are important.”
With the Mets five games back of the Cubs for the second NL wild-card spot heading into their weekend series at Philadelphia, this team will need to employ a short memory, turn the page, and get back on track expeditiously in order to orchestrate another postseason push.
