The last few outings for Jacob deGrom have not gone well and Sunday’s game at Citi Field against the Miami Marlins was no exception. Despite lasting 6.1 IP, he allowed five earned runs on ten hits, but also recorded eight strikeouts.
The stat line does not speak entirely for his performance as a whole. Through the first six innings, deGrom had only allowed two runs which came as a result of two Christian Yelich singles down the 3rd base line that Wilmer Flores was unable to make a play on.
The seventh inning was a whole different ballgame for deGrom. Miguel Rojas led off the inning with a single, followed by an Adam Conley bunt to advance him to second. Dee Gordon then hit a ground ball to short, that Rosario probably should have charged on, but instead waited back on. As a result, Gordon made it to first safely and Rojas advanced to third, which prompted deGrom to get visibly upset with Rosario.
“I probably shouldn’t have done that,” deGrom said after the game. “I have to talk to him. That’s my bad. I can’t show emotion out there like that, especially when it has to do with other players, when you know they are out there trying to play defense behind me. That’s on me.”
Amed Rosario also commented on the issue by telling the media after the game that he is “learning from all these small mistakes.”
Just like that deGrom was rattled, and promptly allowed Giancarlo Stanton to beat him with his league-leading 45th homer of the season to extend the Marlins lead to 5-1 and ending deGrom’s day.
Overall, Jacob deGrom is 13-7 on the year with a 3.49 ERA, which is without a doubt the strongest on the pitching staff. However, that ERA has been rising throughout the month as he has a 4.62 ERA in August. The level of competition for him, lineup wise, has been strong of late between the Marlins, the New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers in three of his last four outings.
DeGrom currently has 191 strikeouts in 165 IP and has a chance to eclipse 200 IP in the regular season for the first time in his career.
