Just Mets

It was a night to forget for Mets RHP Jacob deGrom.

His night got off to a miserable start right out of the gate. In a lefty-stacked Yankee lineup, they immediate jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to a single by Brett Gardner and a two-run home run from Mark Teixeira, ending his scoreless streak at 19 innings.

But it only got worse from there.

In the third inning, deGrom allowed a solo home run to Jacoby Ellsbury, a sacrifice fly from Stephen Drew and then Teixeira homered again, plating two more runs.

deGrom simply could not stop the bleeding in the third inning, and it fell a part quickly for him.

“[Teixeira] hit those hard. They were hit hard and they got out,” deGrom said about the home runs. “That’s the ballpark and it is what it is. Just one of those nights.”

DeGrom was able to identify what doomed him in his fourth outing of the year, during which he saw his ERA climb two full runs from 0.96 to 2.96 thanks to allowing six runs in five innings on Friday.

“I was just leaving the ball up. I was having a hard time getting it down and I just wasn’t executing my pitches,” deGrom explained.

DeGrom allowed three home runs on Friday night, matching a career-high. He allowed eight all year in 2014.

“We’re surprised when Jake doesn’t have his good stuff,’’ Terry Collins explained after the game, “and he didn’t have it.”

His issues was not in his ability to throw strikes – he was throwing strikes all night. It was clearly the quality of those strikes which plagued deGrom. Teixeira did turn on one of his fastballs on the inside corner, which is a credit to him. But all night long his two-seamer was just bleeding over the middle of the plate and he was up in the strike zone all night long. In that ballpark with the short porch, that just can’t happen, and he and the Mets paid the price for his inability to execute.

The lefties crushed deGrom on Friday. Aside from the homers deGrom allowed (all three of which were off left-handed hitters), he allowed five singles to the left-handed hitters in the first three innings. It’s particularly concerning because, while it’s a short sample size, lefties were hitting .394 against deGrom coming into play last night.

The Yankees recognized that, stacked their lineup from the left side, and deGrom was unable to adjust.

Lefties are now hitting .404 against deGrom through four starts.

Again, it’s a small sample, and deGrom was very effective against left-handed hitters last year – they hit .224 against him for the season. But, it’s clear early on he’s doing something which is making him less deceptive from the left side of the plate.

Dan Warthen is a smart guy, and so is deGrom, so this should resolve itself soon enough.