Helping Cy shot, deGrom drops ERA in Mets win

WASHINGTON — Jacob deGrom turned in a record 23rd consecutive quality start, lowered his ERA to 1.77 and boosted his record to .500 as he bids to earn the NL Cy Young Award, allowing one run in seven innings to help the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 Friday night.

Throwing fastballs in the 97-99 mph range, deGrom (9-9) struck out eight and walked one while allowing just one run and three hits, all singles. Bob Gibson (in 1968) and Chris Carpenter (2005) each had single-season runs of 22 quality starts, the previous major league mark.

The righthanded deGrom has given up as many as four earned runs in only one of his 31 starts in 2018, back on April 10 against Miami. He’s now up to 28 in a row allowing three runs or fewer, the longest singleseason streak in major league history.