After a couple of rough outings, Jacob deGrom bounced back in a big way vs the Orioles on Wednesday night at Citifield. The 2014 N.L. Rookie of the Year pitched seven strong innings, allowing only one run while striking out nine, to lead the Mets to a 5-1 win and a two game sweep of the O’s.
The Mets believed one of the reasons for deGrom’s struggles in the previous two starts was that he relied less on his offspeed pitches, like his curveball and changeup. So they wanted deGrom to mix more of them in with his fastball.
Prior to Wednesday’s start, Jacob spent his time watching video of his starts last season and his first three starts this season.
DeGrom used more of his offspeed pitches on Wednesday, establishing his changeup as early as in the first inning of the game and he got stronger as the game went on. He was also getting significantly more swings and misses, something that had been lacking in his previous starts.
“I don’t know why I got away from it,” deGrom said. “Kevin Plawecki and I talked about it before the game and we knew we needed to use it early. We were on the same page all night.” (Kristie Ackert, Daily News)
“He did a better job using the changeup and he made some pretty good pitches with his slider, too,” said manager Terry Collins.
“He looked like the pitcher we saw all last year for sure. People have seen him, all the scouting reports are out. He continues to make adjustments. He is very, very capable of doing that.”
“Tonight we needed him and he stepped up and got big outs for us.”
Despite his early success, deGrom feels that he’s still learning, even as he approaches the one year anniversary of his major league debut.
In his previous start vs the Nationals, deGrom relied too much on his fastball and although it consistently reached 95 mph, he struggled.
Jamal Collier of MLB.com pointed out that in 2014, deGrom threw his changeup 11.92% of the time and his curveball 9.90%. These numbers dropped a little to start this season to 10.54% and 7.53% respectively.
“We mixed and changed speeds really well tonight,” said Plawecki after Wednesday’s win. “And that’s why he had so much success.”
Based on his last two starts, we see the huge difference in deGrom’s effectiveness when he mixes in more offspeed pitches to keep hitters off balance. That was a huge reason for his rookie success in 2014 and also his early success this season. When he utilizes all the pitches in his repertoire and he has them working, it makes him virtually unhittable.
