Just Mets

The Mets dominated the Padres on Monday, shutting them out 7-0 in San Diego. Here are my takeaways from Monday night’s win…

Utter deGromination.

Wow. What a show Jacob deGrom put on tonight. On the three-year anniversary of Johan Santana’s epic feat–the first and still only no-hitter in Mets history–deGrom matched him for some time, as he had perfect game going through five innings.

Clint Barmes wound up breaking up the perfect game and no-hit bid with a leadoff single in 6th, and deGrom wound up facing just one over the minimum through eight innings, allowing only two hits and no walks the entire night. He was just unreal.

He worked so fast, had electricity on his fastball and tight slider, and threw strike after strike from start to finish. The San Diego hitters had no chance against him, and it was a true pleasure to watch what was a special night for the Mets co-ace.

His last four starts have been nothing short of brilliant. He’s fanned 34 while walking only one in a span of 29 innings. With those four starts, what he’s done in general this year and his body of work dating back to the day he put on the big league uniform, he has proven to be one of the best pitchers in this sport, and a unique and irreplaceable asset in their starting rotation.

This guy is just so, so good and if he continues to pitch the way he’s pitching, man, oh man are the Mets going to be dangerous when they get healthy.

Hits! Runs!

When the news broke Lucas Duda was unavailable with a minor knee injury, it seemed as though the Mets would be depending on a perfect performance from deGrom to grab a win.

Well, they got the near-perfect performance from deGrom, but they also smoked the Andrew Cashner and the Padres. Sure, the Padres were a little lackadaisical in the field, but the Mets took advantage of those mistakes, but also hit the ball with all sorts of authority.

The strange part about this game was that the offense struggled early, striking out 10 times in the first four innings, 12 times in the first five and stranding runners at third base with less than two outs. At the end of the day, the Mets struck out 16 times on the night, which is quite remarkable, but when they weren’t striking out, they were pounding Cashner and pretty much everyone else they faced.

They had huge nights once again from Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy from the top of the order, and not only did they set the table for the middle of the order, but they served as the main catalysts and run producers for the Mets this evening.

Other notes from Monday:

Juan Lagares hit the Mets first triple since April 25th. It was Lagares’ first extra-base hit since May 9th.

Ruben Tejada went 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored – he is 8-for-17 with four RBI over his last four games.

Daniel Murphy went 4-for-5 with a home run, double, three runs scored and three RBI – he’s 18-for-41 with three doubles, a home run and seven RBI over his last 11 games.

DeGrom is 3-0 with an 0.95 ERA with one walk and 34 K in 28 1/3 innings over his last four starts.

In the last two weeks, deGrom has now pitched an 8-inning one-hitter and an 8-inning two-hitter.

With the win, the Mets pulled into a virtual first place tie with the idle Nationals.