Jacob’s battery may need to be recharged
dugouts to watch their pitches and soon enough, the Mets suffered another humiliating loss.
“Honestly, I just looked at (Desmond) and I think he thought I said something,” deGrom said. “I have no problem with him. I think it was just a misunderstanding. Everybody kind of jumped in. It looked worse than it was.”
“I don’t think there’s any intent by it,” third baseman Todd Frazier said, after being involved in separating the teams. “It’s just one of those things where a guy got hit by a pitch, kinda squared him up. If I’m a batter I’m upset too. That’s just baseball. Drew definitely didn’t do anything purposely and they got excited.”
DeGrom gave the Mets a chance to get back in the game after pitching his eighth quality start of the year. He held the Rockies to two earned runs on six hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts over six innings. Friday was deGrom’s 35th career 10-strikeout game and third this season.
But the lack of run support, something the reigning Cy Young winner is all too familiar with, eventually led to deGrom’s first career loss against the Rockies. The 30-year-old entered his start with a 4-0 record on a 1.02 ERA in six career starts against Colorado for his lowest ERA against any National League opponent.
The Mets offense scraped just four hits off Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela. The right-hander entered the series opener with an abysmal 5.33 ERA, but the sleepy Mets offense couldn’t score a single off him until Michael Conforto’s solo homer in the sixth.
“The goal is to win baseball games,” deGrom said. “When we don’t, everybody’s frustrated. Still a lot of baseball left. Hopefully we can start stringing those together where it’s five or six (wins) and go from there. Kind of a step forward, step back. Everybody stays positive and does their work so I think things will get rolling here soon.”
Mickey Callaway had cautioned, before Jacob deGrom’s last start throwing to Tomas Nido, that the favorable battery was not something fans should get used to. Six days later, Callaway stayed true to his word and plugged Wilson Ramos into deGrom’s lineup for the first time in four starts.
The Mets never committed to Nido being deGrom’s personal catcher. Callaway said the Mets’ recent wacky game times governed Ramos catching deGrom for Friday night’s game against the Rockies.
“The schedule kind of (made the decision) for me,” Callaway said. “We played a night game and then a noon game yesterday. And the schedule kind of dictated that we do it this time. Just like it does most of the time when you’re making pitcher-catcher matchups.”
Despite deGrom’s superb ERA (1.16) over six games and 38.2 innings with Nido behind the plate, the Mets want their ace to get familiar with Ramos. Callaway comically suggested a working battery of deGrom-Ramos is beneficial for the playoffs, when the Mets would improve with the catcher’s bat in the lineup.
Ramos is batting .422 with 12 runs, five home runs, 10 RBI, nine walks and a 1.274 OPS over his last 15 games. The 31-year-old is batting .309 with 15 runs, two doubles, four home runs, 16 RBI, 10 walks and an .866 OPS in 26 games at Citi Field this season.
There’s no doubt Ramos’ hot bat is an improvement to the Mets lineup. But his stance behind the plate could be a detriment to deGrom if the pair can’t figure out a way to work well together.
DeGrom entered Friday night’s game with a 5.33 ERA over five games and 27 innings throwing to Ramos. The reigning Cy Young winner is the last player to blame that sky-high ERA on his catcher. But after five sample sizes and a handful of innings, the numbers are no longer a coincidence.
“This is something that we knew four or five days ago, and there’s just no way around it,” Callaway said. “Ramos has been catching great. He guided (Jason) Vargas the other day through a great game. He’s been swinging the bat unbelievably. We need them both to work together because the schedule’s going to dictate that you can’t just line Nido and deGrom up all the time.”
A WAYS AWAY
Brandon Nimmo (neck inflammation) began his first rehab assignment with Class-A St. Lucie Mets on Thursday night. Nimmo bat leadoff as the designated hitter vs. Tampa and went 2-for-4 with a triple and a run.
Nimmo has been sidelined with a bulging disc in his neck since May 22 (retroactive to May 21). Callaway said it will take some time for Nimmo’s activation from the injured list because the outfielder will need to field in some rehab games first.
“We’ll take it a day at a time, see how he bounces back,” Callaway said. “He’ll DH again and then he’ll play the field. So it’s going to be a little bit of a process. I’m not sure if we have a number of games in mind. Sounds like he came out of it really well though.”