At a time where the sky seems to be falling for the New York Mets, their thoughts and expectations were high with their ace on the mound against the worst team in baseball.
Jacob deGrom‘s performance though was not up to par, as he struggled through five innings of work, allowing seven runs, six of which were earned, on nine hits while striking out three and walking none. The team would fall to the Miami Marlins by a score of 8-6.
It was a let down for a team who needed a win and a pick me up against the lowly Miami squad. DeGrom though had a tough night, putting the Mets into a deep hole that they were unable to dig themselves out of. The struggling ace spoke of his struggles with locating his slider after the game.
“Not able to locate after the second inning,” deGrom said. “Felt good the first two, then things got kind of out of control. Tonight’s on me. I did a terrible job out there. These guys did nothing but battle. I let it get out of hand.” (MLB)
With Friday night’s loss, the reigning NL CY Young award winner’s record fell to 3-5 on the season with an ERA of 3.98 and a WHIP of 1.17. It has been an uneasy start to the season for deGrom who though had showed signs of turning it around prior to this game.
Manager, Mickey Callaway spoke of deGrom’s start and its similarities to his earlier starts in the season with reporters.
“I think it was just a little reminiscent of earlier in the season,” Callaway said. “Hung a slider there, big couple of hits on non-executed sliders that didn’t quite have the bite that he wanted. They put some good swings on him. I know he’s probably frustrated after that tonight, but he’s got to pick himself up, continue to work. What he’s capable of, go out there next time and make the adjustment.”
The Mets and their fans will hope this is another anomaly and not the beginning of a stretch of poor outings from deGrom. With the team struggling the way they have and the numerous questions within the rotation and it’s depth, the team can just not afford it at this point.
