Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki knew Thursday was going to be a different kind of day for Jacob deGrom well before he threw a meaningful pitch in the game.
“I could tell in the bullpen this was going to be an easy one,” Plawecki explained. “I could tell in the bullpen he was locked in.”
Easy? Maybe. Special? Certainly.
On a cool and cloudy afternoon at Citi Field on Thursday, deGrom put together a start for the ages, and quite possibly the best start of his young career.
DeGrom allowed only a single Cardinal hitter to reach base in eight innings of work, fanning 11 to earn his fifth win of the year. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, deGrom is the fourth pitcher in Mets history to allow no runs, strikeout at least ten and walk none in a game, joining Tom Seaver (July 9, 1969), R.A. Dickey (June 13, 2012) and Matt Harvey (May 7, 2013).
The base runner he allowed was the result of a single by Matt Carpenter in the first inning – deGrom didn’t need to work out of the stretch from the second inning on as he retired the final 23 batters he faced.
That single early in the game made it easier for Terry Collins to lift deGrom after the eighth inning despite his near perfect performance on Thursday.
“I already lived through one of those harrowing experiences,” Collins said in reference to Johan Santana’s no-hitter in 2012. “At my age, you can’t live through too many more.”
Terry Collins said after the game deGrom’s pitch limit would be 110 due to the fact his stud right-hander had been dealing with hip and shoulder soreness in recent weeks (read more about that here). While deGrom wouldn’t say he is 100 percent and the injuries could have been a cause for his mechanical issues in late April and early May, he did say neither of those are problems when he’s pitching at this time.
“It’s come a long way from where it was,” deGrom said.
His fastball was essentially unhittable on Thursday. He had late, tailing break and he was able to place it anywhere he wanted to in the strike zone. He threw 32 of his 47 fastballs for strikes, and the Cardinals – who are a remarkably good hitting team – only put five of them in play all day long and didn’t record a single hit on that pitch.
That’s just incredible.
DeGrom’s problems earlier this month could certainly be attributed to an injury, but the velocity was always there. It was a matter of his inability to command his fastball down in the zone. Whatever was ailing him or whatever mechanical problems he was having have clearly been resolved in his last two starts, as he’s been able to dominate the bottom part of the strike zone with his fastball and slider in particular.
“That’s a great ballclub over there, a great lineup,” deGrom said after his performance. “And to have an outing like that against them is a good feeling.”
DeGrom has allowed seven hitters to reach base in his last two starts, allowing only six singles and a walk over a span of 14 innings.
Just Mets 