Mets Waste Another DeGrom Start, Lose 1-0 to Red Sox

The Mets (9-10) were knocked below .500 by the Red Sox (16-9) with a 1-0 loss on Wednesday evening at Citi Field. Poor at-bats were the culprit of the shutout as Met hitters struck out 15 times compared to the club’s two hits, both of which were singles. Boston secured the two-game sweep with just three runs scored, speaking to serious offensive issues that continue to linger for New York.

Despite the discouraging outing at the plate, the Mets’ pitching staff was essentially lights out. They combined to allow just one run on four hits with 15 strikeouts and a walk.

Jacob deGrom led the charge with a record-breaking evening. The ace registered his 58th strikeout of the season in the sixth inning to tie Nolan Ryan‘s major league record through the first five starts. Wednesday was the 89th time in Jacob deGrom’s career that he allowed no more than one run in a start. Out of 188 games. That’s 47% of his starts, per Mathew Brownstein of MMO. And no, that’s not a typo.

(Box Score)

On The Mound

DeGrom took the mound for New York and took care of business as usual.

The ace threw nine fastballs in the first inning: four at 101 mph, four at 100 mph, and one at 99 mph. He allowed just one run on the evening, which came in the second inning after surrendering a pair of doubles to Xander Bogaerts and Christian Vazquez. It was just the second earned run deGrom has given up this year.

DeGrom then settled in, allowing just two more baserunners for the night: a Rafael Devers double in the fourth and an Alex Verdugo walk in the sixth. His night ended after tossing six innings with nine strikeouts.

Aaron Loup took over in the seventh and gave up a leadoff single to Devers, but induced a 6-4-3 double play to exit the frame in just nine pitches.

Trevor May entered in relief for the eighth and struck out the side, while Edwin Diaz closed it out for New York and added a pair of strikeouts of his own.

At The Plate

New York’s bats were silenced in the loss as they mustered just two hits against Boston. They went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left six on base — something that has unfortunately become a theme for this club throughout the first month of the regular season.

The Mets squandered the few opportunities they had by wasting back-to-back leadoff walks drawn by Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor in the first, a second-inning single from Jeff McNeil, a J.D. Davis hit-by-pitch in the fourth, a James McCann walk in the fifth, and a pair of runners in the sixth after a Pete Alonso single and Davis walk. The entire game can be summed up by that run-on sentence — long and anticlimactic.

On Deck

The Mets have Thursday off. They’ll hit the road to take on the Philadelphia Phillies in the first of a three-game series Friday evening. Marcus Stroman (3-1, 2.25 ERA) will face off against Chase Anderson (0-3, 6.48 ERA).

Stroman is coming off a loss against the Washington Nationals. He gave up four earned runs through four innings pitched and walked two with four strikeouts. Anderson gave up six earned runs in his last outing against Colorado. He walked three and struck out two in taking the loss.

First pitch at Citizens Bank Park will be at 7:05 PM on April 30. The game will be televised by SNY and broadcast on WCBS 880-AM.