Jacob DeGrom’s Unreal Season Continues As He Baffles Padres

Great things tend to happen whenever Jacob deGrom is on the mound, and that’s exactly what unfolded as the New York Mets shutout the San Diego Padres in a 4-0 win on Saturday night.

After dropping the first two games of their four-game series in San Diego, the Mets needed a spark on Saturday at Petco Park and they got just that from their ace.

There is a risk of taking deGrom’s sheer brilliance for granted given that it is on display every single time he takes to the mound, but his outing against the Padres was another tantalizing reminder of why he will go down as one of the best players in franchise history. Period.

With the shackles taken off after caution was taken in the past two starts following an early-season injury, deGrom was dealing from the very first pitch and he delivered seven stellar shutout innings while his teammates did their part by providing run support.

deGrom didn’t allow a single run in the 85 pitches he threw, giving up just three hits and one walk, while striking out 11, which put him in rarefied air given that it was the 1,450th strikeout of his career, passing Sid Fernandez for fourth-place on the Mets’ all-time list.

It was the ace’s longest outing since April 23 against the Washington Nationals, and it was a game in which deGrom lowered his ERA from 0.71 to 0.62, while also making it a record ninth straight start to begin the season in which he has allowed one run or fewer.

No other pitcher in the long, rich history of Major League Baseball has managed to achieve that latter feat.

Incredible stuff from No. 48 yet again.

“He was better and better throughout the outing,” said manager Luis Rojas, who was handsomely rewarded for finally unleashing the best pitcher in all of baseball.

It was vintage deGrom from the very beginning as he cruised through the first inning on just nine pitches, striking out two in the process.

There was a roadblock in the form of Fernando Tatis Jr. who produced a hustle play to claim a double at the top of the second, but deGrom was able to clean up and end the inning without any trouble after taking a grounder to first base and stepping on the bag himself.

The Padres, who are as loaded offensively as any team in MLB, did load the bases in the fourth but, again, they left empty-handed after deGrom was able to strike out both Wil Myers and Tucupita Marcano to frustrate the home team once more.

Homers from Jose Peraza and Francisco Lindor gave deGrom the help he needed at the midway point, and he responded in kind by retiring the side in the fifth inning with ease, and it was a similar story in the bottom of the sixth as he collected his eighth and ninth strikeouts of the night.

Never satisfied, deGrom went on to strike out two more in the seventh, bringing his grand total to 11 and making it 50 career games with double-digit strikeouts, with 1,452 batters falling victim to deGrom’s magic in his career.

With his ERA also in hallowed company, drawing comparisons to the legendary St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Gibson, whose 1.12 ERA in 1968 hasn’t been topped over the past century, deGrom is playing at the peak of his powers once more and is on pace for a third Cy Young award if he can continue on this pace.

He did eventually leave the game after the seventh inning after deciding not to push things too much, but the job was pretty much done by that point and deGrom, ever the perfectionist, was pretty satisfied with his night at the office.

“I felt good most of the night, but I could tell those last couple of innings my arm was starting to drag a little bit,” deGrom said.

DeGrom is carving out yet another historical season in what will be a surefire Hall of Fame career when all is said and done, but the 32-year-old isn’t paying too much attention to what outside forces are saying about his pursuit of greatness.

“Honestly, I try not to think about it,” deGrom said. I try to go out there and just put us in a position to win.”

While he may not want to talk about it, we certainly do and Jacob deGrom’s outing on Saturday was another incredible chapter in what could turn out to be a season for the ages from the New York Mets ace.