Mets in ‘Awe’ of DeGrom’s ‘Unhittable Stuff’

New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was unconscious in his two-hit, complete game shutout of the Washington Nationals on Friday night.

DeGrom kept Nationals hitters off balance all game long and set a career-high with 15 strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 0.31, while not allowing a walk. He also became the first pitcher in the modern ball era to strikeout 50 batters (most in MLB) in his first four starts of a season.

“I try to control what I can control and take it one pitch at a time,” deGrom said. “Tonight, I noticed my stuff was really good in the bullpen. I’ve had those nights, so I told myself I needed to be focused. I was a little nervous.”

“Tonight I felt really good and this was the best my changeup has been in a long time. The goal is to still put up zeroes so there was still some stress there.”

And put up zeroes, he did. In fact, deGrom was so good in this outing that he even drew MVP chants from the Citi Field crowd.

“That was definitely cool. It’d be really cool to win MVP so hopefully we can keep this thing going,” he said.

Forget Cy Young, deGrom has been so valuable on the mound and at the plate that if he keeps this up he will be league MVP. He’s without a doubt the most valuable player on his team, by far.

Although we are used to seeing deGrom impress every time he gets the ball, he tapped into a whole new level of dominance last night and his teammates took notice.

“From the get go in the bullpen, everything was sharp,” said catcher Tomas Nido, who caught all nine innings of deGrom’s gem. “Nearly perfect, I would say. You could feel everything was locked in and it carried over in the first inning. He was just on a roll, they were off balance swinging at pitches out of the zone. I was just putting numbers down and he was hitting the spot.

“You can tell they (the Nationals’ hitters) were frustrated. They are all trying to make adjustments, but it comes to a point in time where you have to tip your cap and realize you are facing the best pitcher in the game and he just has un-hittable stuff.

With deGrom’s pitch count in the upper 90’s after eight and his spot due up in the order in the bottom half, manager Luis Rojas said the pitcher went back to the dugout and immediately put on his batting helmet.

“He was finishing this game,” Rojas said.

And finish the game, he did. deGrom pushed himself all the way to a season-high 109 pitches, retiring the Nationals 1-2-3 in the ninth to go the distance.

Not only did deGrom carry the Mets on the mound, but he continued his hot hitting at the plate, as well.

DeGrom, who normally receives little-to-no run support from his offense, took matters into his own hands getting things going offensively with an RBI double in the fifth inning for the game’s first run. deGrom went 2-for-4 with an RBI on the night extending his hitting streak to five games. His batting average is now up to .545 with a 1.182 OPS on the season.

“He was locked in not only on the mound, but at the plate. He single handedly won and controlled the game,” center fielder Brandon Nimmo said.

Nimmo went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs including his first home run of the season. Nimmo was also able to follow up deGrom’s RBI single with a big two-run single of his own in the fifth to extend the lead to 3-0.

While Nimmo was glad they were able to back up their pitcher with six runs on the offensive end, he is more so in awe of deGrom’s ability to do it all with his arm and bat.

“It feels good. But you know, it’s all about Jake here tonight,” he said. “I’m glad we were able to give him runs and a cushion to work with. He gets paid to throw the ball and he hits better than all of us.”

“I don’t think I can totally comprehend it. To be honest, there are only a handful of people that good. He is in a league by himself,” Nimmo added. “You’re going to be replaying that game as one of the greatest games of 2021.”