Players Of The Week: Alonso Heats Up, DeGrom Masterful

Despite going 2-4 last week, the Mets still sit atop of the National League East with a 9-8 record. They lost all three to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, but they ended the week by winning the series against the Washington Nationals behind two shutout victories and key hits from their power bats.

There were certainly a bit more positives to take out of the past few games for the Mets in all facets of the game, but the two standout performers from this week were Pete Alonso, and yet again, Jacob deGrom.

Hitter Of The Week: Pete Alonso

After a somewhat slow start to the season, Alonso is starting to mash like the prestigious power hitter that he was when he took home the NL Rookie of the Year in 2019.

The slugging first baseman blasted three home runs with five RBI in 25 trips to the plate last week. Alonso continued his Wrigley Field success homering twice against the Cubs, and went deep for a third time on Sunday against the Nationals.

The impressive week increased Alonso’s OPS from.761 to .907. He now has five home runs, 12 RBI, and a .267 batting average on the season. He is on pace for 48 home runs and 114 RBIs over the full 162 game season.

Another top hitter of the week who we have to show some love to was J.D. Davis. Davis batted .474/.524/.895 with two home runs in 21 plate appearances last week.

However, it doesn’t seem fitting to name Davis as player of the week because the several misplays he made on defense that significantly hurt the Mets during the Cubs’ series. Davis’ hitting numbers for the week might be slightly better, but Alonso gets the edge because of his superior overall performance.

Alonso’s stats for the week. .300/.440/.750, three home runs, five RBI, 1.190 OPS, .494 wOBA

Pitcher of the Week: Jacob deGrom

For the third consecutive time, there’s no debate about the Mets’ pitcher of the week. Jacob deGrom was absolutely dominant once again to earn another player of the week distinction.

In a complete game masterpiece against the Nationals,  deGrom struck out a career high 16 batters. DeGrom held the Nationals to just two hits while walking none to lower his season ERA to 0.31, which leads all of baseball.

DeGrom also has 50 strikeouts in 29 innings to go along with a 0.55 WHIP and 16.67 K/BB ratio. It’s also worth noting that deGrom helped his own cause with two more hits on Friday to raise his batting average to .545 and raise his OPS to 1.182.

While no other pitcher came close to deGrom’s dominance, Taijuan Walker does deserve some recognition. Walker posted a 1.69 ERA over two starts with 11 strikeouts in 10.2 innings pitched. Even though Walker wasn’t at his best against the Cubs, he rebounded with a seven-inning shutout against the Nationals on Sunday to secure the series win.

But it looks like it would take a special kind of outing for any pitcher to top what deGrom is doing on the mound this year. When deGrom starts Wednesday against the Red Sox, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see him pitch another incredible game.

DeGrom’s stats for the week. 1-0, 9 IP, 16 K, 0 BB, 0 ER