New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom followed up his masterful complete game, two-hit shutout with another impressive start against the Boston Red Sox.
Facing the best offense in baseball, deGrom went six strong innings on 93 pitches, giving up one run, on three hits, while walking one and striking out nine batters.
DeGrom’s nine strikeouts gave him 59 on the season, which are the most for a pitcher in his first five starts since Nolan Ryan in 1978.
But unfortunately, he received no run support, which has become a common theme when the two-time Cy Young Award winner takes the mound.
After the game, deGrom deflected the blame from his lack of offensive support, and instead, shifted the focus towards himself for not being perfect this time out.
“I try not to think too much about it. I’m more disappointed that I wasn’t able to make pitches there in the second inning. I was trying to battle through, but just left some balls over the middle of the plate that got hit. That comes down to me controlling what I can control and I didn’t do a good job of that in the second inning,” said deGrom.
The lone blemish deGrom was talking about came on the two doubles he surrendered in the second, which plated the game’s only run.
After that, right-handed starter Nick Pivetta and three Red Sox relievers combined for nine shutout innings, stifling Mets’ hitters throughout the entire contest.
Last night was the 33rd time in deGrom’s career, where he has given up one run or less and did not get a win out of it. Since the start of 2018, deGrom has a 1.99 ERA with a 27-21 record in 81 starts, but the Mets have gone 38-43 in those game, per Mike Mayer of MMO.
deGrom gave up some hard hits to the Red Sox, including three doubles, which is out of character for him. But alas, he still settled in to pitch a more than solid outing.
The right-handers’ league leading 0.31 ERA jumped up to 0.51 due to the one run he allowed. Still, this impressive number is the lowest ever for a Mets pitcher through their first five outings.
Mets pitchers as a whole combined for nine scoreless innings, allowing four hits, and one walk while striking out 15. But the offense did not pay them back with just two hits and no runs on the night, with 15 strikeouts (season-high).
The Mets were shutout for the second time already this season, and lost 1-0 for the first time since July of 2019.
They will now have their second day off this week, before heading to Philadelphia to take on the Phillies for a three-game set starting on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.
