After a clunker of an outing against the Miami Marlins on May 17 that saw Jacob deGrom allow six runs over five innings pitched, the Mets’ reigning CY Young Award winner was in need of a smooth start. On Wednesday night he received exactly what he needed.
DeGrom, 30, put together a stellar performance against the division rival, Washington Nationals. Jake put together six solid innings as he allowed just one run on two hits while striking out eight and walking three. The quality start helped keep his team in the game, leading the way to a big 6-1 comeback win for their third consecutive victory.
Throughout most of the game, Jacob was cruising along other than the blast off of the bat of Adam Eaton in the first inning. It was not until the sixth inning that he found himself in trouble, walking both Eaton and Anthony Rendon before turning it up a notch and striking out both Juan Soto and Matt Adams to end his night.
After Wednesday night’s victory, deGrom spoke of his ability to navigate through the inning after walking the two batters in the sixth.
“I had to refocus and bare down in that situation and was fortunate enough that I was able to do it,” deGrom said. (NY Daily News)
Jacob tossed 103 pitches to get through his six innings of work, 63 of which landed for strikes before handing the ball over to the bullpen who backed up deGrom in great fashion. It was the 69th time out of 149 career starts, that deGrom has allowed one or no runs.
This was exactly the building block that Jacob needed after struggling against the lowly Marlins just days before. It has been a rocky season thus far for deGrom but he has shown signs of returning to form with the hope that he will continue to improve and get back to the ace he has been as the 2019 season progresses.
