Monday wasn’t one of Jacob deGrom’s best days on the mound. But he showed once again even when he isn’t at his best, he can be as good as any pitcher in the league.
deGrom earned his first win of the year during Monday’s home opener against the Phillies, throwing 6 1/3 shutout innings while allowing seven hits, a walk and three strikeouts. But, he admitted he was not on top of his game on Monday afternoon.
“I really didn’t think he had his “A” game today,” Terry Collins said after the game. “I’ve seen him enough to know that there’s a lot more in there.”
“When you realize you don’t have it, you’ve really got to concentrate, try to make the pitches that you can make.” deGrom said after the game. “My off-speed wasn’t really that good and I was having a hard time locating my fastball. I really had to bear down mentally, try to get guys out.
deGrom seemed to struggle with his fastball command. It was a little wild in the strike zone and it his two-seamer had so much movement it was often tailing outside the zone to left-handed hitters. But he was still able to throw that two seamer 21 out of 28 time for strikes and he countered that with a filthy change-up in which he got four swings and misses out of the seven he threw for strikes.
deGrom lasted into the seventh inning, throwing 64 of his 99 pitches for strikes while inducing six groundball and five fly ball outs. He left with one out in the seventh inning after allowing back-to-back singles to Cody Asche and Freddy Galvis, but Carlos Torres came in and stranded the two runners by inducing a groundout from Cesar Hernandez and a strikeout of Ben Revere.
“Carlos came in and did a great job,” deGrom said.
In general, it hasn’t been that easy for deGrom over his first two starts. He’s given up a lot of hits, but he’s so poised and limits the bases on balls which has helped him keep the club in these games. He’s also working a lot up in the zone, which seems to be by design as part of his adjustment this year. It remains to be seen how this will all look in the end, but once he gets more comfortable, it should all come together again for him.
In his first two starts of the year, deGrom is 1-1 with a 1.46 ERA in 12 1/3 innings, having allowed 13 hits, two runs, three walks and nine strikeouts.
Just Mets 