The New York Mets held a team meeting prior to their middle game of a three-game set in Atlanta against the first place Braves. They would turn to their ace, Jacob deGrom, the reigning CY Young Award winner in hopes of turning things around and getting their season back on track. Jake would deliver in a big way.
DeGrom, who turned 31 on Wednesday, was magnificent in a game they truly needed him to be, not just to defeat the team who is leading their division but to bring some positive morale back to this team and their fans. Jake would go on to toss 8.1 innings while allowing two runs on five hits, walking none and striking out 10.
His own blemishes would come in the ninth inning with one out as Freddie Freeman and Josh Donaldson went back-to-back with home runs to end Jake’s night on the mound, falling just short of a complete game.
“That was the best stuff I had all year,” deGrom said. “That is why it was so disappointing to give up those two homers at the end.” (NY Post)
With Tuesday’s performance of 10 strikeouts, deGrom moved up the charts in Mets royalty with the seventh most strikeouts in Mets history. He now sits on 1,112 for his career and is behind Ron Darling for sixth on the chart who completed his Mets tenure with 1,148.
Manager, Mickey Callaway spoke about just how big this start was for the team.
“[DeGrom] stepped up when his team needed him the most,” Callaway said. “He did what an ace does and he went out there and shut down a great lineup.”
Jacob was absolutely filthy on a night where he showed why he is not just the ace of this staff but one of the premier pitchers in the league today. He tossed 113 pitches on Tuesday, 77 of which landed for strikes while improving his hard-luck record to 4-6.
His ERA sits at 3.26 on the season with A WHIP of 1.08 and has struck out 112 batters in 91 innings pitched. Jacob has a FIP of 3.21 and a WAR of 2.5 in 2019.
Now the Mets can only hope that this begins the rally they need to get back into the NL East race.
