With just three-and-a-half games separating themselves and the Milwaukee Brewers for the second National League Wild Card spot heading into Friday’s series opener in Cincinnati, the New York Mets are involved — albeit on the fringe — in a postseason race.
As SNY’s Gary Cohen said during Friday night’s telecast, immediately following an MLB postseason promo (nice segue, Gare), “the Mets want to play in October; first, they have business to take care of in September”.
Right-hander Jacob deGrom is knee-deep in a race of his own — the 30-year-old’s chase for a second consecutive National League Cy Young Award.
Heading into the evening, deGrom’s 2.61 ERA ranked third in the NL, his 6.2 wins above replacement (FanGraphs) ranked second, and his 239 strikeouts and 1.01 WHIP were both tops in the league (43 walks are 12th-least, 18 home runs allowed are seventh-least).
With Washington’s Max Scherzer and Los Angeles’ Hyun-Jin Ryu — arguably his only real competition for the hardware — fading in recent weeks, deGrom had the opportunity to make an indelible mark on the BBWAA voters. He also had the chance to keep the Mets’ postseason hopes alive.
DeGrom set down the Reds in order in the first, striking out Joey Votto swinging at a four-seamer right down Broadway. Tucker Barnhart singled with one out in the second, but Jake struck out Phillip Ervin looking at a 92 MPH slider that was well outside of the paint. We’ll take it.
After Jose Peraza‘s leadoff single in the third, followed by the 128th stolen base the Mets have allowed this season (most in MLB by a mile) and the runner advancing to third on Josh VanMeter‘s groundout, deGrom faced Votto with a dancing-down-the-line Peraza representing the early go-ahead run on third.
Jake started the future Hall of Famer out with a slider down the middle of the plate, knowing Votto wouldn’t swing. His next two pitches were [prosecutor from My Cousin Vinny voice] eye-dentical 91.1 MPH changeups, waist-high, on the outside half of the plate. Votto could do nothing but watch on both, striking out for the second time in the game.
Aristedes Aquino stroked a one-out single into center field in the fourth, swiping second later in the inning, but deGrom got Barnhart to fly out and struck out Jose Iglesias on a low-outside, practically unhittable slider, his fifth punchout of the night.
DeGrom produced his second 1-2-3 inning of the night in the fifth, striking out Ervin for the second time, looking at an outside-paint four-seamer, and got his counterpart, Luis Castillo, swinging at a foot-off-the-plate slider.
VanMeter went down hacking at a gorgeous changeup that dropped into the low-outside corner of the strike zone to start the sixth. After a Eugenio Suarez, two-out single, deGrom struck out Aquino swinging at a high-zone, 98 MPH four-seam for his ninth strikeout of the evening.
With a brand new, 3-0 lead courtesy of Amed Rosario‘s two-run blast in the top half of the frame, deGrom set down the Reds in order again in the seventh, inducing three groundball outs via Barnhart, Iglesias, and Ervin.
DeGrom, at 96 pitches and staked to a 5-0 lead via Pete Alonso‘s 50th home run of the season, was removed ahead of the eighth inning, ending his night after seven scoreless frames, racking up nine strikeouts, allowing four hits, and walking none.
For the most part, Jacob deGrom pitched to contact — and weak contact at that. He picked up 13 swings-and-misses and 13 called strikes while averaging 83.6 MPH average exit velocity on 16 balls in play.
DeGrom lowered his season ERA from 2.61 to 2.51 on Friday, helped the Mets stay alive in the Wild Card race, and bolstered his NL Cy Young Award hopes even further with his dismantling of the Reds.
