Five days after throwing 45 pitches and lasting only one inning in Philadelphia, Jacob deGrom bounced back with a dominant start in the Mets 3-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
DeGrom picked up his fourth win of the season by striking out 13 in seven innings and allowing one earned run and six hits. He became the 10th pitcher in Mets history to hit the 800 career strikeout mark.
“I felt comfortable throwing any pitch in any count tonight,” deGrom said. “I would say it was probably close to the best I’ve felt.”
DeGrom started out his night by retiring the first six batters he faced. In the third, he gave up a lead off single to Alex Avila on the first pitch, but then retired the next three batters. Unlike his last start against Philadelphia where he needed 45 pitches to complete one inning, last night he threw 44 pitches in three innings.
“It was just one inning and it was just strange — I just didn’t have a feel for it that day,” deGrom said on his start against the Phillies. “I wasn’t able to figure it out. I have been fortunate to figure it out most of the time, even if I don’t get off to a great start, but that was just one I wasn’t able to.”
The right-hander’s only blemish of the night is when he gave up an RBI double to Jake Lamb in the sixth inning, ending his career high scoreless streak at 24.1 innings. He held the Diamondbacks hitless in six at bats with a runner in scoring position tonight. This season, opponents are hitting .125 (4-for-32) in those situations, including a .118 mark (2-for-17) with RISP and two outs.
deGrom has also joined some elite company with his 13 strikeout performance. Through 116 career games, deGrom is sixth all time in double digit strikeout games with 24, joining Herb Score (26), Roger Clemens (27), Kerry Wood (28), Yu Darvish (31) and Dwight Gooden (33). Since 1908, deGrom also has the most games (52) allowing one run or fewer through 116 games.
After nine starts this year, Jacob deGrom now has a 1.75 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 69 SO and is staying right in the thick of the NL Cy Young race. He currently leads the Mets with a 2.0 WAR and will be counted on to lead the Mets back into the playoffs.
