SHELLED GAME
deGrom gives up 3 leads, lets down offense
ARLINGTON, Texas — One de-Railment was considered a blip, but two straight is now cause for serious concern within the Mets universe.
Jacob deGrom came to “Big D” on Tuesday and couldn’t have pitched any smaller in a career-worst performance that sunk the Mets in a 10-8 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Park.
“A lot of balls right down the middle,” deGrom said after the Mets lost for the fifth time in six games and fell eight games below .500 for the first time this year. “Like I said last time, ‘Bad outing,’ and that is on me again. I have got to be better than that.”
On a day manager Terry Collins was discussing the possibility of a six-man rotation, one could only wonder if the Mets even have more than two or three starters worth sending to the mound.
DeGrom, fresh off getting trounced by the Brewers last Wednesday, allowed eight runs on 10 hits over four innings and was removed after only 69 pitches while surrendering three separate leads. The eight runs allowed matched a career high for deGrom, who saw his ERA balloon to 4.75, putting him in territory that has largely been reserved for Robert Gsellman and Matt Harvey this season.
“Right now we’ve got to come up with an answer,” Collins said. Could it be a health issue? “I feel fine — that is what’s frustrating about it,” deGrom said. “I just don’t know where the ball is going right now.”
The brightest spot of the Mets’ rotation, Zack Wheeler, is scheduled to face the Rangers on Wednesday. The righthander, in his return from Tommy John surgery, has pitched to a 3.72 ERA. The Mets’ reinforcements, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo, won’t pitch until this weekend in Atlanta.
The Mets (24-32) continued a spiral toward oblivion — they began the night 11 ½ games behind the Nationals in the NL East, with the wild- card race not much rosier — with an eight-game deficit separating the Mets from almost half of the National League.
Unlike Sunday, when rookie Tyler Pill was hammered by the Pirates, this one was stunning because it came against deGrom, who couldn’t possibly have had a second straight brutal outing, right? Wrong.
“You tell me that Jake deGrom is going to start a game and we’re going to score eight runs, I figure the game is over,” Collins said. “It just tells you we’ve got issues we’ve got to deal with.”
As much as the Mets lineup tried to rescue deGrom, delivering 17 hits, for a change Collins’ crew sputtered with runners on base. In the end, the Mets were left to wallow in the fact that they left 14 runners on base — too much to overcome, even factoring in consecutive homers by Curtis Granderson and Travis d’Arnaud in the ninth that made it interesting.
“We’d go up and then I would give it back up,” deGrom said. “It was poor effort on my part.”