New York Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom entered his start on Tuesday with a 2.66 ERA (fourth in NL among qualified starters), 214 strikeouts (tops in the league), and a 1.02 WHIP — tied for third in the NL with his counterpart, Washington’s Max Scherzer (2.46 ERA), and the third horse in the NL Cy Young race, Los Angeles’ Hyun-Jin Ryu (2.35 ERA).
From June 1 through his last start (August 29 versus Cubs; four runs over seven innings), deGrom led the NL in ERA (2.04), FIP (2.27), and wins above replacement (4.3; FanGraphs) with 11.63 strikeouts and 1.78 walks per nine innings, respectively. Simply awesome.
Coming off of a sub-Jake-standard outing, deGrom and the Mets — four games out of a wild-card spot heading into the contest — were surely looking forward to a cleaner day at the office for their ace.
DeGrom allowed a one-out double to Asdrubal Cabrera in the first then fell victim to a terrific swing via Juan Soto on a first-pitch 91 MPH changeup — high-and-outside, no less — that nearly left the park, hitting the wall in left-center, just over a leaping Brandon Nimmo, to give the Nats an early 1-0 lead. Gotta tip your cap to a piece of hitting like that.
After striking out Gerardo Parra on a disgusting lower-zone curve (side note: after seeing a combination of four 96-98 MPH four-seamers and a 93 MPH slider, not even Ted Williams couldn’t have touched this deuce — woof), deGrom allowed a two-out double to Victor Robles but punched out Scherzer to close out the second unscathed.
Trea Turner singled on the first pitch he saw in the third and Cabrera drew a walk, but deGrom induced a 5-4-3 double play via Rendon and got Soto to line out (first-pitch swinging again; notice a pattern here?) to escape the jam.
The Mets got to Scherzer for four in the top of the fourth (Wilson Ramos RBI single, extending his hit streak to 26 games; Brandon Nimmo RBI sacrifice fly; Joe Panik two-run homer) giving deGrom an uncharacteristically comfortable cushion of run support to work with.
Matt Adams went down swinging at a gorgeous changeup to start the fourth and Parra got caught looking at a high-zone, 98 MPH four-seamer to end the frame, and deGrom worked around a leadoff walk to Robles in a scoreless fifth.
The Nationals struck back in the sixth, stringing together a Soto hit-by-pitch and back-to-back singles from Adams and Kurt Suzuki (Adams’ baserunning blunder held him to one base) to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-2, but deGrom got Parra to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the frame (thanks, Matt Adams).
DeGrom walked Andrew Stevenson with one out in the seventh but benefitted from a terrific diving grab via Nimmo on a Turner liner and struck out Cabrera on a 3-2 changeup to leave him stranded.
At 95 pitches heading into the eighth, a 5-2 lead courtesy of Jeff McNeil‘s 18th home run of the season in the top of the frame, and a fully-rested bullpen waiting in the wings, Mets skipper Mickey Callaway elected to stick with his ace facing the heart of Washington’s order.
Naturally, Rendon led off the inning with a softly-hit single and Soto crushed a 443-foot home run to right-center, cutting the Mets’ lead to one run and ending deGrom’s evening after 100 pitches (64 strikes; 12 whiffs, 17 called strikes).
Seth Lugo closed out the frame, and, despite a five-run ninth powered by Nimmo (solo homer), McNeil (two-run single), and Pete Alonso (two-run homer; no. 44) and a 10-4 lead going into the bottom half of the frame, the Mets’ bullpen allowed seven to cross the plate and lost, 11-10.
With his four earned runs allowed over seven innings on Tuesday (eight hits, six strikeouts, three walks), Jacob deGrom’s ERA increased from 2.66 to 2.76. Even on a night when Jake didn’t have his upper-echelon stuff, it was enough. Unfortunately, the relief corps couldn’t shut the door. Onward and upward.
