Pure dominance is how most would describe Jacob deGrom’s Grapefruit League debut.
The two-time defending Cy Young award winner went three innings, gave up one hit, and struck out two, all while throwing just 33 pitches on the afternoon. Efficiency did not seem to be an issue for the Mets’ ace in his outing against the 2019 World Series winners.
DeGrom started off the afternoon with a 97-mph fastball to shortstop Trea Turner and got him to ground out to Andres Gimenez. Ryan Zimmerman grounded a ball to Pete Alonso before Starlin Castro flied out to right fielder Michael Conforto, ending the first frame on only seven pitches.
Yan Gomes flied out to begin the top of the second. Andrew Stevenson managed the only hit versus deGrom, as he lined a ball in front of Conforto for a base hit. Michael A. Taylor popped a ball to third basemen Jeff McNeil for the second out, and the third was not far away, as Stevenson tried to get aggressive on the base paths and was caught at second by catcher Wilson Ramos.
DeGrom grabbed his only two strikeouts of the outing in the top of the third, victimizing Carter Kieboom on a 2-2 changeup and Brandon Snyder on a 2-2 slider to open the inning. Despite the back-to-back K’s, the Mets’ all-star knew there was more to work on.
“Felt like I could command my fastball, like I said after that sim-game, threw some good ones threw some bad ones and I think the two-strike was the one [I] was not as pleased as I wanted to be with it,” he said in an interview after the start. “Wanted it more off the plate, left a couple in the zone there, still good pitches but they weren’t the swing and miss I was looking for.”
JB Shuck ended deGrom’s outing with a groundball to the first base side that was picked off by Pete Alonso, who flipped the ball to deGrom covering first for the third out.
DeGrom faced the minimum nine batters in his debut and faced the most adversity in the second inning with a battle against Michael A. Taylor. Still, he felt that the struggle was important to continuing progress and improvement in the Spring.
“I think, for me, probably the second inning was a little more useful for me,” deGrom said. “Felt really good out of the windup, didn’t feel as good out of the stretch, so I think that was good. Like I’ve said before, that’s when you make your most important pitches with runners on, and working on varying times, picking, and trying to keep the baserunners where they are at, so I felt like that was useful for me, that second inning.”
Sunday’s debut marked a successful start to the 2020 season for deGrom, who will look to lead the Mets’ postseason charge late into October. Look for deGrom to up the strikeout count in his next few appearances. After working to develop his slider over the offseason, his K/9 that has sat just above 11 in the last two years could skyrocket even further up.
