Just Mets

The reward for what could be considered a dominating performance for a pitcher should be a win.

And on Sunday, Jacob deGrom was in fact dominating, at least after Freddie Freeman did what he normally does in the first inning which is hurt any pitcher wearing a Met uniform.

DeGrom allowed just the one solo home run to Freeman on five hits with a walk and nine strikeouts in seven innings.

And of course it was Freeman who ended deGrom’s streak of 40 1/3 innings without allowing a home run, right?

“There in the first I left one over the middle to Freddie and he got it,” deGrom explained about the home run. “Other than that, I think it’s just being able to throw any pitch when I want.”

Unfortunately for deGrom, his performance did not net a win for him on Saturday – he took a no-decision instead after the Mets bungled an opportunity to win their first series since May 25-27 against the Phillies.

Still, it was another in what is becoming a long line of brilliant and dominant performances for the Mets co-ace – he is 4-0 with a 1.25 ERA in his last five starts, allowing just five walks and 24 hits with 53 strikeouts in 43 1/3 innings of work, holding the opposition to a mere .383 OPS during that span.

It’s the fewest hits, the second best ERA, and the third most strikeouts in baseball during that span.

Remarkable.

Yesterday, deGrom induced nine groundball outs and only one flyball out, which is amazing considering he struggled early to keep the ball down in the zone. But he started to command the lower part of the strike zone beginning in the third inning, and from there it was lights out for the Braves.

His change-up was particularly good yesterday, especially against the left-handed batters in the Braves.

DeGrom needed 102 pitches to get through seven innings, a pitch count Terry Collins said was escalated unnecessarily thanks to defensive miscues behind the star pitcher.

“When you give up outs, pitches add up,” Collins explained. “So you’re looking at two hitters, three hitters more that he’s got to face than he normally would have to face. You’re looking instead of being 102 or 103 or whatever he was at the time, he might be at 90. It’s a whole different situation for sure.”

It’s been a constantly frustrating part of the story for the starting pitchers in 2015. Regardless of what they say in public, there’s zero question they’ve been annoyed at times about the defense. In fact, deGrom showed some of that frustration speaking to reporters earlier this season. But, it’s their job to pick up the infielders when they can and, despite the elevated pitch count, deGrom did that on Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get a win to show for the effort.