How about that… The Mets wrapped up what was supposed to be a tough West Coast road trip by taking two of three from both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants to give them a neat and tidy 4-2 California swing.
Make no mistake the offense still has a long way to go, but the pitching was outstanding and the Mets took advantage of some mistakes when they needed to.
Jacob deGrom pitched a gem in his final start before the All-Star Game, striking out 10 batters for his third double-digit strikeout performance of the season and the seventh in his young career.
DeGrom mixed up a great assortment of offspeed pitches to go with his plus-fastball and held the San Francisco Giants to just two hits in eight innings. He ended his outing with an exclamation point, retiring the last 13 batters in a row.
He improves to 9-6 for the season and his ERA drops to an impressive 2.14 heading into the break.
Asked if he was happy with how his sophomore season has gone so far, deGrom said:
“I’m happy with it. There’s a couple of games I wish I could have back. Other than that, I’m happy with how the first half went.”
And as for the 4-2 road trip, deGrom understood how significant that was.
“We needed it. It’s a good way to go back home. We won both series, and we’re looking forward to playing these last couple of games at home before the All-Star break.”
I’m not going to lie, the Mets desperately needed this. They got that whole “Mets can’t win on the road” monkey off their back, and now return home to Citi Field on Friday coming off a very impressive road trip. You can’t beat that.
