If a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner faces one batter over the minimum across four innings in a spring start but it wasn’t televised, did it really happen? It sure did, and it was spectacular.
A rare SNY-less game at Clover Park made it so that just the fans in attendance saw Jacob deGrom strike out a trio of Cardinals batters on Wednesday. The only blemish on his record was an opposite-field home run by Matt Carpenter.
“I felt like in the sim game I had [last week] I was yanking the ball a little bit and today I felt like I was able to locate the fastball, slider, and changeup pretty well,” deGrom said.
Dexter Fowler and Yadier Molina were deGrom strikeout victims in the first inning. Fowler struck out again to lead off the fourth inning but Carpenter sent a pitch over the left field fence right after. deGrom rebounded to induce a groundout and fly out to end his day.
DeGrom threw 39 pitches — consistently reaching 98 mph — in the game before taking to a backfield to stretch out with another 15-pitch simulated inning.
“We didn’t think he was going to reach his pitch count at one point,” manager Luis Rojas said. “Command, stuff, choice of pitches when he wanted to, changeups to put away batters on 3-2. He did what he does. He did everything right today.
“He’s so competitive. He competes against the guys out there but he also competes against himself and get better. He’s talking and interacting with our pitching coaches. He wants to be the best performer out there, he wants to beat you, and I think that’s what doesn’t make him stop ever and keep getting stronger.”
Through two Grapefruit League outings, deGrom has struck out five and allowed just the one run. He’ll likely make two more starts before Opening Day.
“Just continuing to work on my offspeed,” deGrom said as he gears up for the season opener on March 26 at Citi Field. “The slider was good [today] at times, other times it backed up a little bit. Just continuing to go through the process I’ve been going through.”
Of course, with recent public health developments, deGrom’s first start of the regular season could be pushed back, relocated, or played without fans in attendance.
“I haven’t thought about it too much,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that all this is going on, but I think as of right now I’m preparing as if everything was normal. I think that’s the plan, it could change, but for me, I just have to prepare for that day.”
