Credit: Kam Nedd-USA TODAY Sports

In Game One of a two-game series against the Baltimore Orioles, Marcus Stroman was wheeling and dealing. The right hander bounced back after a bumpy first two batters to put together, yet another, great outing.

Cedric Mullins began the game with a lead-off single, and Austin Hays followed up with a ground ball back to Jonathan Villar, who botched the play causing Mullins to go from first to third.

Stroman used his glove to get out of trouble, making beautiful defensive play on a comebacker off the bat of Trey Mancini, cutting down Mullins, who was trying to score on the play.  Freddy Galvis grounded out to end the inning.

Stroman began to find a rhythm in the second inning, recording two strikeouts, before hurling perfect frames in the both the third and the fourth innings. Stroman has always been known for his ability to generate a lot of ground balls throughout his career, and that was paramount in this contest.

Stroman has the fifth-best ground ball percentage in the majors at 56.4%. The ground balls were rolling last night, as eight of the first 12 Baltimore outs were made on groundouts.

“He was outstanding. Everything working for him: sinker, slider, changeup. They have some really good hitters in that lineup and he was mixing well.” Mets manager Luis Rojas said of Marcus Stroman’s outing at Citi Field.

Flash forward to the seventh inning, where Stroman had retired 14 of the last 15 batters, and hadn’t given up a hit since the second inning.

Nonetheless, he began to run into trouble that inning, as Galvis and Maikel Franco led things off with back-to-back singles. After Rio Ruiz grounded out, Pedro Severino was intentionally walked, loading the bases.

This marked the end of Stroman’s night, as the Mets turned to Aaron Loup to get out of the jam. The left-hander allowed a sacrifice fly, accounting for the only earned run attributed to Stroman, before inducing a groundout that ended the inning.

All told, Stroman allowed four hits, two walks and one earned run across 6 1/3 innings, while striking out five batters. He lowered his season ERA to 2.01 with this great performance (which ranks 6th in the National League.)

“I just compete. I get my body and mind in the best place possible over my five days.” Stroman said.

On the season Stroman owns a 1.02 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, and his 3.8 K/BB which are all the best marks he’s produced since 2014, which was his rookie season.

With Jacob deGrom on the IL, the Mets will continue to rely heavily on Stroman as the ace of the staff until the two-time Cy Young can return to the mound.