BATS A NO-GO VS. GIO
DeGrom gives free passes to career-high in ugly loss
With the way the Mets have hit — or not hit — their starting pitchers have had to be near-perfect. Jacob deGrom wasn’t even close in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Washington.
“When you get beat 3-1 and you think you got blown out, that’s not good,’’ said Terry Collins. “Our pitching staff has kept us in games.”
And deGrom (0-1) did as well, but it was one of his stranger outings. He gave up three runs in 5 2/3 spotty innings, struck out 10, but gave up eight hits and a careerhigh six walks to take the loss.
“It’s definitely strange. My goal is to go out there and put up zeroes. I wasn’t able to do it. They had some hard-hit balls off me. [I] just wasn’t very good late,’’ said deGrom, who insisted the Mets’ offensive malaise wasn’t putting any extra pressure on him. “Every time I go out there I want to put up zeroes.”
After waking up Thursday with a stiff neck, deGrom had been scratched from Friday’s scheduled start against Washington.
“My neck was fine,’’ said deGrom.
“I have nothing else except he didn’t hit his spots. This guy struck out [10] guys, checked with him every inning, he felt good,” Collins said. “They’ve got a good lineup. You can’t make mistakes. And the base on balls killed him. So obviously he lost. … He didn’t make the pitches he had to make.
“He missed with his slider quite a bit. He got some swings on some changeups, but his slider — you look at, especially, the two walks to [Anthony] Rendon, he missed with sliders on the outside corner pitch after pitch. You’ve got to get those to get outs.”
Cruising along, deGrom struck out seven through his first three shutout innings, before seemingly losing command of his slider, allowing a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth. The way the lineup is struggling, that was enough.
“I feel like early on I had control of pretty much everything, and then I was having a hard time getting the ball down,’’ deGrom said. “When I walk six guys … I felt like I had good command early and lost it late. Walking six guys never helps, and then you’re behind in a bunch of counts. Just didn’t really throw the ball how I wanted to late, didn’t make pitches when I needed to.
“I felt like I was in line good in the beginning. I’m not really sure what happened. But I was having a hard time getting the ball down in the zone, missing up and away to guys and they’re in positive counts a lot, which doesn’t help you out a lot.”
Catcher Rene Rivera added, “Overall he did a good job. That lineup managed only three runs. I think that’s a good outing. He kept us in the ballgame.”