One of the jobs of a team’s ace is to deliver key wins when the team is in need of one, whether it’s to stop the bleeding of a losing streak, beat a tough team under adverse conditions, or be a difference maker to win a series.
Jacob deGrom has been all three this season, specifically on Wednesday as he capped a brilliant first half with a much-needed win over the Giants at AT&T Park.
DeGrom put together his finest performance of the season at the absolute right time for the Mets, going eight innings and allowing just two hits and a walk with ten strikeouts to secure his ninth win of the first half and his first All-Star appearance with the fifth-best ERA in the sport at 2.14.
“It’s like a video game out there with him,” Kevin Plawecki said. “He’s a lot of fun to catch.”
He’s a lot of fun to watch too. He was masterful at painting the black with his electric 95 mph fastball on both sides of the plate. He off-set his fastball with a disappearing change-up away from the left-handed hitters.
“I felt really good today, I think it was one of them,” he said. “I had good defense behind me: Juan [Lagares] made some great catches out there when a couple of balls were hit hard. That helps out a lot, too.”
He’s the undeniable ace of this staff in 2015, and unquestionably among the best pitchers in baseball over the last year.
The stats support that argument. In the last full calendar year, deGrom is 17-7 with a 2.04 ERA with 203 strikeouts in 194 1/3 innings, posting 6.1 wins above replacement (WAR) in 29 starts in that span.
Here’s how those figures rank in the game over the last year:
- The 17 wins are tied for second best.
- The 2.04 ERA is the best.
- The 203 strikeouts are 13 best.
- The 6.1 WAR is 6th best.
It’s also worth noting deGrom’s 29 starts are the 60th most among qualified starters.
Utterly remarkable.
DeGrom deflected questions about emerging as the club’s ace after the Picasso he painted in San Francisco on Wednesday.
“Whenever it’s your day to pitch you’re the ace that day,” deGrom explained. “That title, I don’t look that much into it.”
It’s ok – that’s the our job to do, anyway.
With this offense, the team is strictly depending on their top shelf pitching to deliver lockdown performances day in and day out. It’s not going to happen everyday, although the starting pitching has been tremendous and is the primary reason the Mets have survived to this point in the season.
And in the last month when the offense has been completely absent, the starting pitching has glistened, posting a 2.98 ERA in their last 28 games. That’s the fifth best mark in the big leagues during that span.
And deGrom’s 1.51 ERA in five starts over that span has highlighted that tremendous accomplishment for the starting staff.
His performance – along with a huge contribution from Eric Campbell late on Wednesday – is a big reason this club went 4-2 on this road trip, as opposed to 3-3. It was an ace-like performance and he delivered the way an ace should – in lights out fashion against a top-tiered team on the road.
“We have not played well on the coast and we talked about what a tough month of July we were going to face,” Terry Collins said. “We got off to a slow start and if we had a bad week here we were going to be in tough straits. It was a big win for us.”
And deGrom cemented that win, and gave the club every reason to enjoy their long flight back to New York last night.
Just Mets 