Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Jacob deGrom (7-2) returned Monday with five scoreless innings as the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2 in Game 1 of the day’s doubleheader.

DeGrom made his regularly scheduled start after leaving last Wednesday’s start early with shoulder soreness. He struck out six Braves while walking two and giving up a hit during his final inning. He threw 70 pitches, and his ERA is 0.50 through 12 starts.

The Mets only gave deGrom one run of support through the first four innings. It came on a mix of small ball and luck. Jonathan Villar led off the game for the Mets with a walk. Francisco Lindor moved him to second on a sacrifice. A Dominic Smith fly out to right brought Villar to third, and a wild pitch by Braves rookie Kyle Muller brought Villar home.

After deGrom left the game (but before his replacement could throw a pitch), the Mets tacked on three more runs with a massive two-out, bases-clearing double from Dom off lefty reliever Sean Newcomb.

It’s the biggest hit the team’s had off a left-handed pitcher in a bit. They’ve been struggling mightily against southpaws, including Monday’s starter Muller (one hit and two walks allowed in four innings).

That double loomed large as Ozzie Albies took Seth Lugo deep with a man on the following inning, bringing the Braves’ deficit to two runs. Trumpets sounded the next inning, though, when Edwin Diaz came in for the seventh to shut down the six-through-eight hitters in the Braves order. It was his 15th save of the season.

DeGrom now has thrown 30 2/3 straight scoreless innings. (That’s just over halfway to Orel Hershiser‘s record of 59 straight.) The last run he allowed was a home run to Ryan McMahon of the Colorado Rockies on May 25. He still has more RBI (six) than earned runs allowed (four). And according to ESPN Stats & Info, deGrom tied Bob Gibson‘s 1968 record of 12 straight starts allowing one run or less. Magic.

DeGrom was saved by a fortunate bounce off the warning track when Kevan Smith skied a double (the only hit deGrom allowed) to left-center. Albert Almora Jr. and Smith weren’t quite sure who should catch it (neither really looked like they knew where the ball was), and it bounced off the clay and over the wall. That stopped Guillermo Heredia from scoring from first, and Pablo Sandoval popped out on the next pitch.

What I’m about to type next sounds ridiculous because deGrom threw five scoreless innings, but it seemed like the first start where he didn’t really have command of his slider and changeup. Based on his heat maps, he left multiple sliders up near the belt of the batter, which he’s basically avoided all year.

Check out his heat maps on the slider from Monday (on the top) and on the year (bottom).

DeGrom looked a bit annoyed on the mound through much of his start, and you’d be worried as you don’t know if that’s because he’s annoyed at lingering pain in his shoulder or just general annoyance that deGrom sometimes shows on the mound when he’s slighty off. But on Monday, with his average fastball velocity about the same and his slider velocity down less than one mile per hour, it seemed more like an annoyance that he struggled with location. (This, of course, could relate to lingering shoulder soreness, but we’re trying to keep it positive.)

Nevertheless, he shut down the Braves and worked out of a jam to keep it scoreless, as he does.

The umpires also wanted to make sure deGrom and his 0.50 ERA were clean Monday. (This is a mandatory check that pitchers will be going through the rest of the season. DeGrom went through it a couple of times Monday. Perhaps they won’t ask him to unbuckle his belt every time, though.)

Jerad Eickhoff will start Game 2 for the Mets. Luis Rojas said he’d have to run a different course if Eickhoff had to enter Game 1 for a long-relief outing, but since he was able to avoid that, Eickhoff will get his first start in the majors since 2019 with the Phillies. He was 5-1 with a 5.32 ERA over 44 innings with Triple-A Syracuse before getting called up. (No matter the results, he’ll likely stay with the squad with Joey Lucchesi and Robert Gsellman out.)

Jeff McNeil will also start Game 2, likely at second base, after making a pinch-hit appearance (swinging at the first pitch and recording a single).

He and the remainder of the lineup will face off against Ian Anderson, who has probably been the best Braves starter all year with a 3.58 ERA (3.37 FIP) over 70 1/3 innings. Anderson’s been a little shaky his last couple of outings with three four-run appearances over his last four starts. One of those was against the Mets on May 29 — the one game the Mets squeezed in from what was supposed to be a three-game series.