If nothing else, Jacob deGrom proved he’s mortal after all. The reigning rookie of the year lasted just 5.1 innings against the Cubs on Thursday and allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits, two walks and only struck out two.
The loss snapped his streak of seven straight starts with at least 7.0 innings pitched and two or fewer earned runs allowed. It was the longest such active streak in the majors.
DeGrom, who was pitching on six days rest and whose fastball hovered around 93 mph, surrendered his eighth home run of the season to Jonathan Herrera, who last homered in 2013. It came on his 115th pitch in the sixth and his day was done.
He was visibly agitated as he walked off the mound and when stepped into the Mets’ dugout, deGrom exploded and took his frustration out on a Gatorade cooler which he punched with his right hand.
“I didn’t have the game I wanted,” he said. “I had a tough time commanding my pitches. I was wild. I just struggled out there today.”
“Even in the bullpen, I was struggling with my command,” deGrom said. “It’s happened before, and I’ve come out and had good command in the game. It’s just one of those days.”
DeGrom will be fine and despite this hiccup his ERA still stands at an impressive 2.30 for the season. It was actually refreshing to see a Met show such raw emotion, and who knows, perhaps the team’s current malaise fed into it a little bit. It at least shows the kid cares.
After all the times deGrom has picked up his teammates, it would have been nice to see them return the favor for a change, but one measly, stinking run was all the offense could muster. Hence this…
[iframe]<iframe src=’https://m.mets.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=220517783&topic_id=47150560&width=400&height=224&property=mlb’ width=’400′ height=’224′ frameborder=’0′>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>[/iframe]
