DeGrom Dominates In Return To Citi Field

 

Jacob deGrom with his familiar stare down before the first pitch of the game. Photo by Jason Schott. 

Jacob deGrom is one of the greatest pitchers in Mets history, and he made his long-awaited return to Citi Field on Friday night.

DeGrom started his career with the Mets in 2014, and joined the likes of Tom Seaver and Doc Gooden as he won the National League Cy Young Award in 2018 and '19.

In 2023, deGrom signed with the Texas Rangers and was part of their World Series championship team.

Texas is back in the hunt this year, and deGrom has been a big part of it, and he showed why on Friday night.

On the other side of the field for the Mets was starting pitcher Jonah Tong, who is part of their new class of young pitchers they hope will carry them into the future.

On this night, Tong, in just his third start since he was called up on August 29, had his toughest outing yet.

Tong started the game by walking Josh Smith, then after striking out Wyatt Langford, he walked Joc Pederson. 

Jake Burger then flew out to center field for the second out, and then he got the first two strikes against Josh Jung.

Tong jammed Jung, who muscled one into right field for an RBI single to make it 1-0 Texas. 

Then, Alejandro Osuna dunked one into left field to bring in Pederson.

Jonah Heim then walked to load the bases before Cody Freeman lined one to right field to bring in two more and make it 4-0 Rangers. 

Michael Helman, the ninth hitter in the Texas lineup, then laced one down the left field line to bring in a couple more and give Texas a 6-0 lead. 

Jonah Tong pitching to Michael Helman. Photo by Jason Schott.

At this point, the Mets went to get Tong, who just hit 40 pitches.

Huascar Brazoban came on for the Mets, and he got Josh Smith to fly out to left field to end the long inning.

The 20-minute inning only built the anticipation of deGrom taking the Citi Field mound, and he made quick work of his old teammates. 

DeGrom only needed six pitches to get Francisco Lindor to ground out to first base, then Juan Soto grounded out to second, and Pete Alonso bounced one to shortstop.

Francisco Lindor grounding one to first base. Photo by Jason Schott.

The second inning was more of the same, as deGrom worked around a one-out single by Mark Vientos to left field.

Brazoban kept it a 6-0 game, and the Mets pounced in the bottom of the third.

Francisco Alvarez led off with a liner to right field that just got over the fence for a solo home run.

Then, Cedric Mullins laced a single to center field before Lindor hit a double up the gap.

Suddenly, the Mets had runners at second and third bases with none out for Soto.

The Mets star tore into one, and it looked like he might have hit a game-changing home run, but it stalled on the warning track for a sacrifice fly to bring in Mullins.

Alonso then hit one to right in much the same way Alvarez did, but it came up short of a homer, so he also got a sacrifice fly to bring in Lindor and make it 6-3 Texas. Nimmo flew out to left field to end the third.

In the fourth, Vientos bounced one back to deGrom, and then Jeff McNeil was called out on strikes, and proceeded to scream at the umpire and fling his helmet, earning a prompt ejection. Brett Baty flew out to end that frame.

Starting with when deGrom got the final three outs in the third, albeit the first two being sacrifice flies, he retired the final 15 in a row until he exited after the seventh inning.

Jacob deGrom firing one past Brett Baty for a strikeout in the second inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

DeGrom's final line was: 7 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs (earned), 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, and he earned the win to improve to 12-7 with a 2.82 earned run average (ERA).

By that point, Texas was up 8-3 after they tacked on a pair in the top of the seventh inning, and that would be the final.

Jacob deGrom pitching to Ronny Mauricio in the seventh inning. Photo by Jason Schott.