Jacob deGrom was not focused on his inability to execute a pitch on the inner half of the plate in the first inning against Ryan Zimmerman on Wednesday, rather he was more concerned with his inability to execute with his bat in the second inning.
On Wednesday night, deGrom allowed a two-run home run to Zimmerman in the first inning, which was all the Nationals needed as they defeated the Mets 2-1 in the second game of the year.
“That pitch was inside. He must have just been looking for it,” deGrom explained after the game. “I got it in where I wanted it. He just happened to hit it. I felt like I threw it where I wanted to and he just put a good swing on it.”
It happens. It was a good pitch running in on Zimmerman, but he’s a good hitter with power to all fields, and as Jake said, he probably had some kind of idea he was going to try and sneak one by him so he just opened the hips and turned on one. Good execution, bad result. Overall, deGrom was fantastic despite struggling a little bit early in the strike zone. The Nationals did a good job fouling his fastball off at times, but he was able to manage the game thanks to a fantastic disappearing change-up diving down and out of the strike zone.
DeGrom said after the game that pitch wasn’t what was bothering him. Rather, he was more perturbed when he failed to get a sac bunt down with two on and one out against Jordan Zimmermann.
“The only thing I wasn’t pleased with was [not] getting the bunt down,” deGrom said. “That makes a big difference in the game. With Flores getting a hit after that it probably scores that guy.”
He’s right, but it’s even more glaring for a couple of reasons. First, the team struggled early last year to execute in these situations, and it’s something the better clubs in the National League simply don’t have trouble with for the most part.
Second, as has been the theme in these two games, these games are going to come down to these moments, because opportunities to score are so hard to come by with these two staffs.
The Mets really didn’t have another meaningful chance to score the rest of the night, forcing a rubber match this afternoon in Washington.
Just Mets 