DeGROM DOES HIS ALL FOR METS WIN:
deGrom is de man to stop Mets’ bleeding, for now
Let’s face it, Jacob deGrom can’t pitch for the Mets every day. Perhaps more importantly, he can’t hit for them every day, either. It still doesn’t feel like what happened on Sunday ultimately will be able to prevent their season from continuing to devolve into late-summer irrelevance, no, it most certainly does not. But the floppyhaired righty unmistakably did it all for the Mets when they desperately needed someone to, and he helped them avoid an embarrassing four-game home sweep against first-place Washington with his first career homer and his second straight deep starting performance in a sharp 5-1 win over the Nationals.
As no less an authority than Sandy Koufax once told Terry Collins, every rotation needs a frontline pitcher willing and able to take it upon himself put a stop to any ongoing misery.
For this Father’s Day, at least, deGrom undoubtedly was that man for the Mets.
“You’ve gotta have that guy…And right now Jake’s leading the pack to be that guy,” Collins said. “Those are the kind of guys that stop losing streaks. You lose three in a row, and who shows up? Jake deGrom. And that means a lot.”
Look, we all know by now that the Mets haven’t had nearly enough of “those guys” on their active roster in any phase of the game, with injuries wiping out multiple starting pitchers, position players and their closer for lengthy stretches since this still-bleak 31-37 season began.
Still, this has been quite the adventurous and polar opposite four-start stretch for deGrom, hasn’t it?
Two shellackings against Milwaukee and Texas, for a whopping total of 15 earned runs, have been followed now by consecutive gems, featuring the Mets’ lone complete game of the season in his previous start last week against Chicago and then eight innings and no earned runs allowed on Sunday.
“Like I said before, those were two starts,” deGrom said. “Baseball’s a funny game. I felt good those starts, I just gave up a bunch of runs. After those two, I was just trying to prepare for these next ones. That’s all you can do.”
With the season crumbling quickly, however, it clearly didn’t feel that way at the time. Lest anyone already has forgotten the telling video of Collins captured earlier this month in Texas with his arm around his dejected former All-Star after the Rangers had pounded deGrom for eight runs over four innings.
Instead, after poring over videos of a different nature with pitching coach Dan Warthen, deGrom says he’s refocused himself on keeping his front shoulder closed toward home plate and relying more on his changeup. No complaints, so far. “To start the season, when he was mowing guys down with the strikeouts, he got away from who he is,” Collins said. “And now he’s back.”
Even if no one is suggesting that the Mets are, too.
Father’s Day in Flushing once featured a perfect game tossed against them, in 1964 by Hall of Famer and former U.S. Congressman Jim Bunning of the Phillies, the legendary American figure who died just last month.
DeGrom wasn’t perfect on Sunday, but he beamed that it was “awesome” for him to pitch so well with his father, Tony in attendance, as well as the pitcher’s 1-year-old son, Jaxon, who had endured scary breathing issues as a newborn in 2016.
DeGrom’s 105th and final pitch was a rising 98-mph fastball that blew away Bryce Harper to end the eighth.
The former college shortstop even lashed a game-tying opposite-field bomb to left-center to open the third — while using a bat he’d borrowed from injured captain David Wright.
“I think I got lucky. I was running pretty hard, so I didn’t know it was gone,” deGrom said. “But that’s where I seem to hit the balls in batting practice, so I knew if I got it over there I’d have a chance.”
The Mets retrieved the ball, which was stationed over deGrom’s shoulder in his locker stall. It will be gifted to Tony deGrom as a Father’s Day present.
The solo blast also represented the Mets’ first run against Nats starter Joe Ross, while galvanizing both the holiday crowd and a moribund dugout — both in need of any sort of unexpected boost following three disheartening losses to start the series.
“I had a pretty good view of it,” said Michael Conforto, who was in the ondeck circle. “I was surprised Jake has that much pop to the opposite field. Maybe he’s got to do what I do, keep using the whole field.
“But it definitely was a huge one for us.”
To that end, Collins had reasoned incorrectly earlier Sunday during the Mets’ pregame radio show “the only people that think the sky is falling here are the media.”
Believe
me, you would never think that if you ever checked out my mentions or the hashtag #MetsTwitter on that always entertaining social media site. The manager even added afterward that he told his players to not “pick up the newspapers” to avoid the mounting negativity and just concentrate on playing the games. (But Skip, we really need the circulation and the web clicks right now)!
“If you win games, you’ll be back in the race and that’s what we have to do,” Collins said he told his players. “There’s only so many gutpunches you can take, before you’re down on your knees for a few seconds.
“You can only take so many blows, until that brief moment that you feel sorry for yourself, and then who shows up? Max Scherzer.”
Tonight in Los Angeles, Clayton Kershaw ominously will stand on the other side.
But Jacob deGrom showed up again on Sunday, precisely when the desperate Mets needed him most.