Jacob deGrom will make the biggest start of his young career tonight against the Dodgers in game one of the NLDS. DeGrom is honored that the Mets chose him to start tonight’s game, and he knows he will have to be at his best with Clayton Kershaw on the mound.
“With our pitching staff, any of the guys could have gone Game 1,” deGrom said. “And when they told me I had Game 1, I was really honored. To be able to maybe go two games in this series, I was honored with that.” (Adam Rubin, ESPN NY)
It was definitely the right decision by the Mets as deGrom has been the team’s best pitcher all year. He won 14 games and had an outstanding 2.54 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 191 innings. He also struck out 202 batters, which was the highest total on the team.
Even though this will be deGrom’s first postseason experience, it won’t be the first time he has performed on a big stage. In the all-star game this summer, deGrom struck out the side in just ten pitches as he caught the attention of the entire league, including Kershaw.
“I think that’s where you start — with his fastball, just the carry and the ride that it has on it,” Kershaw said. “The ball that looks like it’s at your shins or ankles, it seems like he gets a lot of called strikes there. The guys think the ball is down. Same thing with the ball up. You think you can catch up to it, and guys swing through it a lot for strikeouts. … So we definitely have a challenge. This whole series, the three, four guys they’re throwing at us are pretty solid.”
Most of the focus has been on Kershaw and Zack Greinke, but deGrom and the Mets’ starters may turn out to make a bigger impact. They have the talent to shutdown any lineup, and they are certainly good enough to compete with the Dodger’s Cy Young starters.
