Wednesday night’s game against the Miami Marlins could be Jacob deGrom‘s last start of the season.
I hope it’s not. If it’s his last start of the season that means that the Mets have been eliminated. And whereas the numbers do look like that’s going to happen, it hasn’t happened yet. These next few games are must-wins.
If the Mets do continue to win, and Sunday night’s game matters, deGrom will likely pitch on short rest. However, if it does not matter, they would not risk putting deGrom out there. It has already been said that if he is healthy, deGrom will be starting Opening Day of next season.
However, if that does not happen, this is the last time we are seeing him this season. Mickey Callaway spoke about it at length during his pregame press conference. One of the biggest takeaways? He is as mind-boggled as the rest of us are as to how the Mets offense does not seem to be able to score when deGrom is on the mound.
“I’ve never seen a two-year period where this has happened,” he said. He elaborated about how he has put his best defense out there tonight and hopes that this isn’t the case once again. “No one has ever had this long of a drought without run production on his side.”
I didn’t fact-check that but it does sound true, no?
Like the rest of us, he also strongly believes that deGrom deserves to win the Cy Young award again. “In my mind, he’s got a pretty commanding lead,” Mickey stated. He went on to state about how deGrom could solidify his case tonight with one of his usual performances.
We are all in agreement that deGrom deserves this award. We are also all in agreement about how deGrom deserves an offense that produces when he is on the mound.
“He deserves our runs. He deserves to win tonight,” Mickey stated. “You have to win your horses’ games.” I agree, but I also agree that this should have been the case for all of this season and all of last season.
One thing we are also all in awe of is how deGrom continues to be a leader, a clubhouse asset, and there for his team. He does not let the frustration of them not scoring runs get to him.
“I wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Mickey said, and I personally very much agree with Mickey as I most definitely would have flipped by this point. Yet, deGrom hasn’t. And that is part of what makes him remarkable.
