Jacob deGrom

Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets (26-20) sent Jacob deGrom to the mound as they opened a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks (19-36) on Monday.

The start was deGrom’s second since returning back from the 10-day injured list, and just like his last one there were no signs of rust.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner started his night off by striking out Josh Rojas on three four-seam fastballs. He followed that up with by inducing a groundout, before closing out the inning with another strikeout.

After an 11-pitch first inning, deGrom required only 10 pitches to get through the second. It took him one pitch to get David Peralta to pop out, four pitches to strike out Carson Kelly and five pitches to strike out Pavin Smith.

DeGrom continued to roll in the third, getting Josh Reddick to ground out for the first out of the inning. While deGrom only used two sliders up until this point of the game, he used three sliders in his strikeout of Domingo Leyba. He then finished the inning by getting his pitching counterpart Merrill Kelly to ground out.

In the top of the fourth, deGrom had an RBI single and therefore coming into the bottom of the inning he had already produced more on offense himself than he had allowed to the entire Diamondbacks team. He also kept the opposing hitters off base in the fourth as he used 12 pitches to induce a flyout, groundout and lineout.

In the fifth inning, deGrom retired his 13th batter in a row by getting Peralta to ground out. However, his pursuit of perfection ended a batter later as Carson Kelly recorded a single on a line drive into center field. DeGrom erased Kelly on the basepaths as he got Smith to force out, but then got into trouble as he allowed a single to Reddick. He then rebounded nicely by striking out Leyba on three-straight sliders.

DeGrom started out the sixth inning by picking up his seventh strikeout of the night on four pitches to Merrill Kelly. He made quick work of Rojas by getting him to ground out on one pitch. DeGrom finished his night by striking out Ketel Marte by utilizing his curveball, changeup and four-seam fastball. It was the first curveball deGrom had thrown all season.

Overall deGrom turned in another brilliant outing and even received some rare offensive support to secure his fourth win of the season. He needed only 70 pitches to get through his six innings pitched and limited the Diamondbacks to only two hits, while striking out eight. In the process he lowered his MLB-best WHIP from 0.600 to 0.569 and his MLB-best ERA from 0.80 to 0.71.