DeGrom Dominates Rockies As Mets Bounce Back From Subway Stumble

 

Jacob deGrom striking out Colorado's Charlie Blackmon in the first inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

Whenever Jacob deGrom takes the mound, Mets fans must feel like they can see history.

Thursday night, when the Mets ace faced the Colorado Rockies, was no exception, as he threw six innings, allowing just one run on three hits and a walk, while striking out nine. 

The Mets went on to win, 3-1, and deGrom is now 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA (earned run average), returning to his Cy Young Award-form after missing over a full calendar year due to injury.

This was a nice bounce-back win for the Mets after they lost the pair of games at Yankee Stadium earlier in the week, and they are now 80-46, two games up on the idle Atlanta Braves, who are 78-48, in the National League East. Atlanta starts a three-game series in St. Louis against the Cardinals Friday night 

DeGrom came out firing, as he retired the Rockies in order the first time through, nine up, nine down, with five strikeouts, and to show his remarkable consistency, three outs made at second base, and a fly ball to right field, meaning all the balls put in play were to the right side.

The Mets gave him the lead in the third when Tomas Nido singled and came in to score on a groundout by Francisco Lindor, which gave the Mets shortstop 85 RBI on the season, and that was followed by the big blow off the bat of Pete Alonso, a two-run shot that made it 3-0.

The Mets first baseman now has 31 home runs and 104 RBI on the season. He is now tied for third on the Major League Baseball RBI list with Cleveland's Jose Ramirez, and he is just one behind the Yankees' Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt (who each have 105) for the MLB lead. 

DeGrom kept going after the Mets gave him the lead, and he ended up retiring the first 13 Rockies hitters before Jose Iglesias got an infield hit with one out in the fifth inning.

That was followed by Randal Grichuck lacing a double down the third base line, so the Rockies wound up having two runners on and one out, but deGrom struck out Sam Hilliard and Brian Serven flew out to right field.

Colorado then got on the board with one out in the sixth when Ryan McMahon launched a home run to right field to make it a 3-1 Mets lead.

DeGrom then walked Brendan Rodgers before striking out Charlie Blackmon and then got C.J. Cron hit into a force out to end the inning, and that closed out the Mets' ace night.

Seth Lugo was first out of the Mets' bullpen, and he struck out the side, and worked around two hits and a walk. He struck out McMahon with the bases loaded to end the inning.

The Mets then went with the matchups in the top of the eighth, and turned to their closer, Edwin Diaz, as the Rockies had the top of the order coming up. He retired the first couple hitters, but then gave up a walk to Cron and a single to Iglesias before he struck out Iglesias. 

Since the Rockies worked Diaz for 16 pitches, the Mets turned to Adam Ottavino for the ninth, and he retired the Rockies in order, and notched a strikeout, as he earned his first save of the season.