REALLY NOT PERFECT
Diaz tagged for winning HR in his 2nd straight outing
Edwin Diaz lets out a yell after offering up go-ahead HR to Jose Iglesias in ninth inning as Mets waste Jacob deGrom effort in 1-0 loss.
As one problem fixed itself, another dilemma has only just begun.
For the second time in three days, Edwin Diaz gave up the game-winning homer. He left an 88-mph slider low and over the plate for Jose Iglesias to break a scoreless tie, and the Mets lost, 1-0, to the Reds on Wednesday night at Citi Field.
It was just Iglesias’ second homer of the season and 23rd of his eight-year bigleague career.
The Mets closer gave up a go-ahead homer to Jesse Winker during the eighth inning of the Mets’ 5-4 loss to the Reds on Monday as well. Diaz has allowed a home run in consecu- tive outings for the third time in his career; the last time came when he did so in three straight appearances from June 21-28, 2017.
Diaz stood at his locker, staring at his feet with his eyebrows furrowed, and said he was frustrated at serving up a poor pitch to Iglesias.
“I think this is something that happens in baseball,” Diaz said. “I didn’t execute the first pitch on Monday and I didn’t execute the pitch today. These are professional hitters, so if I don’t execute, they’re going to make me pay for it.”
The silver lining of the first game of May arrived courtesy of the team’s ace.
Jacob deGrom came back from the dead on a frigid and misty Wednesday night after three starts and 13 frustrating innings.
It certainly wasn’t perfect, but the reigning National League Cy Young winner pitched his best start in nearly a month.
DeGrom held the Reds to three hits over seven scoreless innings, striking out six and issuing two walks in 101 pitches. The right-hander dialed his fastball velocity back up to 98 mph.
“It’s definitely a relief,” deGrom said. “Nobody wants to go out there and stink. Just going out there and trusting it … I felt like I was pretty close to where I wanted to be.”
The Mets’ ace showed flashes of his dominant arsenal throughout his sixth start of the season. It was the third inning when he looked most like himself, when he struck out two batters with eight straight fastballs, and got the third out with a 92mph slider that brushed the edge of the strike zone and induced a flyout. It was an encouraging outing after deGrom gave up 14 earned runs, 18 hits and eight walks with a 9.69 ERA over 13 innings in his last three starts before Wednesday.
“It felt like he was back,” Mickey Callaway said. “It was very reminiscent of last year. He probably didn’t have his best stuff, but that was him, keeping the runners from scoring, making big pitches when he needed to. Seven innings, three hits, no runs, that’ll do every time.”
The seven scoreless innings were impressive, but deGrom’s velocity dipped into the low-90s in the seventh inning. He gave up a leadoff walk followed by a single before getting out of the jam. The two walks and one hit batter were also concerning, but only because it’s deGrom we’re talking about.
“Just overall, they still fought off some pitches that hitters normally wouldn’t,” Callaway said. “But he’s headed in the right direction. That was a great game. Probably me being nitpicky because of what I experienced for so many starts last year, but he was great.”