Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman will start against the Miami Marlins this weekend.
It is finally Opening Day for the New York Mets who open the 2021 MLB season against the Philadelphia Phillies tonight at Citizens Bank Park, which comes after the first series of the year was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns within the Washington Nationals organization.
As he has in the previous two years, deGrom will get the opening day start for the Mets tonight, and he’s only the fourth pitcher in franchise history to do so behind Tom Seaver (10 straight), Dwight Gooden (four straight) and Johan Santana (three straight).
And we’ve now learned that deGrom will get his first start of the season at Citi Field on Saturday against the Miami Marlins, with manager Luis Rojas announcing that his ace will be on a pitch count of 100 tonight against the Phillies.
That will allow deGrom to start game five of the 2021 season on Saturday on four days rest and will avoid having to use Joey Lucchesi as an opener, while Stroman will start tomorrow, David Peterson will get the final game of the series in Philadelphia and Taijuan Walker will then make his Mets debut in the team’s home opener against the Marlins on Thursday.
Stroman will get the ball for the final game of the Miami series on Sunday afternoon, and it remains to be seen what the Mets will do rotation wise for the four-game set at Citi Field against the Phillies that will start next Monday.
It means that those Mets fans lucky enough to have tickets for Saturday’s game won’t have long to wait to see their star pitcher in action this season, and deGrom is chasing history as he looks to capture a third Cy Young award in four years.
And by starting Stroman to close out the series against the Marlins on Sunday, the Mets will give themselves the best possible chance to win their home opening series and set the tone for what they hope will be a hugely exciting and ultimately successful 2021 season.
After all, with a new (very) wealthy and ambitious owner in place in Steve Cohen, a radically retooled roster and a superstar shortstop in Francisco Lindor, excitement levels are sky-high amongst Mets fans right now, and if deGrom and Stroman can help get things started the right way at Citi Field this weekend, that will certainly help to extend the feel-good factor for at least a little bit longer as we now finally have meaningful baseball games to sink our teeth into.
