New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom, the 2018 NL Cy Young award winner, was facing his third straight Cy Young winning opponent Saturday at Chase Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks. First, it was Max Scherzer, then it was Clayton Kershaw and then it was Saturday’s opponent Zack Greinke who won the award in 2009 as a member of the Kansas City Royals.
It was the first time in MLB history a reigning Cy Young award winner faced three straight winners of the coveted honor. And for a while, it looked as if deGrom, pitching like he did for most of 2018, would cruise to an easy victory. But as has happened a few times on this road trip, the Met bullpen gave up the lead causing Jake to suffer another no-decision.
But before discussing the rest of the game, a bit more about deGrom is in order. In 151 starts, Jacob has allowed one or no runs 70 times which is a remarkable accomplishment. In those same 151 starts, he has allowed 319 runs, the third-fewest runs allowed in that amount of starts. He certainly has been special, and deserved better on Saturday.
But through all the machinations and deGrom brilliance, Mets fans will leave this game with a bad taste in their mouths as Arizona erases two 4-run deficits to beat the Mets 6-5. (box score)
Unfortunately, this road trip will be remembered as the trip where the Mets blew a five-run lead in Los Angeles and a four-run lead in the same game in Arizona.
Offense
The Mets managed nine hits against the Diamondbacks on Saturday.
They faced Zack Greinke who is the ace of the Arizona staff. He owns a 5-1 record lifetime against the Mets with a 3.08 ERA. The Mets hit the ball hard against Greinke in the first inning as they scored a run to take the early lead.
Dominick Smith, making his ninth start of the series, stroked a one-out single. Pete Alonso followed with a long double to left-center scoring Smith to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. The RBI was Alonso’s 44th of the season. Pete has a six-game hitting streak. Greinke worked around a walk to Todd Frazier to escape the first with only one run scoring. Greinke needed 24 pitches to get through the inning.
In the second, the Mets didn’t score but continued to hit the ball hard as Tomas Nido flew out to the warning track in right.
The Mets got to Greinke in the fourth inning scoring three runs. The first five batters reached with hits topped off by a 2-run home run by Todd Frazier. Michael Conforto started things off with a bunt single towards third. Frazier was up next and he slammed his fourth homer of the year to give the Mets a 3-0 lead. Frazier as of this at-bat is 20 for his last 55 (.363) with seven extra-base hits in his last 15 games.
Carlos Gomez followed with a single. Adeiny Hechavarria also singled to put runners on first and third. Tomas Nido was up next, and he stroked the first pitch he saw for the Mets fifth straight hit of the inning. Gomez scored to make the score 4-0. The inning had a strange moment in it as Greinke called out the trainer after a pitch and was surrounded by the whole infield. But after a fairly long meeting, Greinke stayed in the game. But the fourth inning would be Greinke’s last.
Zack Godley came into pitch for Arizona in the fifth a proceeded to retire nine Mets in a row.
The Mets finally got to Godley in the eighth as Smith led off with a long homer to right center to extend the Mets lead to 5-1. It was Dom’s 3rd home run of the year Alonso followed with a single, but the Mets could do no further damage.
Smith and Alonso were the only Mets to have multiple hits with two each.
Pitching
Jacob deGrom took the mound for the Mets and he worked efficiently for the majority of his outing.
He faced the minimum number of Diamondbacks in the first three innings on only 27 pitches. In the first, Jarrod Dyson led off the game with a single, potentially a danger because has he leads the NL in steals with 12. But he was erased on a nifty double play started by Hechavarria.
Jake retired Arizona in order in the second, third and fourth innings, still facing the minimum number of batters while retiring 11 in a row.
In the fifth, deGrom made it 14 retired in a row as he pitched another one-two-three inning while throwing only 47 pitches. Through five, deGrom had not allowed a walk or even a three-ball count to any Diamondback batter.
De Grom’s consecutive batters retired streak came to an end at 15 in a row as with one out in the sixth, Alex Avila dumped a soft single to center, only the second hit of the game for Arizona. Jake also walked Jarrod Dyson in the inning (his first walk of the evening). But deGrom induced a ground out to Ketel Marte to retire the side.
In the seventh, Arizona scored on deGrom to break-up the shut-out. Adam Jones doubled and that was followed by an error by Hechavarria on a grounder by Ildemarco Vargas to score Jones. But the issue was that after that grounder, deGrom seemed to tweak his right hip and was visited on the mound by head-trainer Brian Chicklo, manager Mickey Callaway and others.
DeGrom convinced them to remain in the game, but after a double by Nick Ahmed, the same group came out of the dugout to visit Jake once again. This time, however, deGrom was removed from the game in favor of Jeurys Familia. Familia got a huge out by striking out Avila with runners on second and third.
Jacob deGrom’s final line was: 6.2 IP, 5 hits, one run, seven strikeouts tossing 89 pitches 63 of which were strikes. He now has a 3.49 ERA. But as things would turn out, he would get a no-decision.
“Another ugly inning for the Mets bullpen” is how Gary Cohen described the bottom of the eighth. Eight Diamondbacks came to bat and four scored to tie the score out 5-5. Familia gave up three of the runs and Robert Gsellman gave up the fourth on a two-run homer by Adam Jones. It erased a possible win for deGrom and it punctuated a poor road trip the Mets bullpen has had. Ketel Marte and Eduardo Escobar drove in the other two runs in the painful eighth.
In the ninth, Drew Gagnon walked Tim Locastro and he promptly stole second. He went to third on a passed ball by Wilson Ramos who came into the game in the ninth. Nido was hurt in the eighth and was double switched for by Callaway in the ninth. The head-scratching move in the inning was the use of Edwin Diaz to get the last out of the frame. He did so, but his warm-up pattern in prior innings was the source of conversation on the broadcasts.
In the 10th, Diaz struck out the side to keep the score tied at five.
Tyler Bashlor came in the 11th and promptly gave up a double to rookie Kevin Cron. Nick Ahmed sacrificed him to third. The Mets brought Juan Lagares to be a fifth infielder. But in didn’t matter, as Tim Locastro lined a ball to deep center to score Cron to give Arizona a 6-5 victory.
On Deck
The Mets finish their series with Arizona, as well as their seven-game road trip, Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PM. Steven Matz will start for New York. Mickey Callaway remarked that Matz’s last start against the Dodgers was the best he’s ever seen him throw. Matz is 3-2 with a 2.88 ERA over his last six starts.
The Diamondbacks will counter with 30-year-old rookie Merrill Kelly. Kelly has lost his last two starts (Colorado, San Diego) and four of his last five. He is 4-6 with a 4.83 ERA. The game will be televised on SNY and broadcasted on WCBS 880-AM.
