Giants no match for Amazin’ Jake
deGrom’s gem leads Mets to 2nd straight
SAN FRANCISCO — Jacob deGrom deserves a medal just for taking his turn each time in this battered Mets rotation, but here’s something else: He’s scary good right now.
With all the explosions around the team in recent weeks, deGrom’s return to excellence probably is the best thing the Mets have going for them.
On Saturday, the righthander dominated the Giants for eight innings, and the Mets rallied with late offensive support in a 5-2 victory at AT&T Park.
The performance was the best by a Mets starting pitcher since deGrom had the ball six days earlier and stifled the Nationals over eight innings.
“He’s just been lights out,” Jay Bruce said. “That’s what an ace does, and it’s come to the point now where I’m always wondering if he’s going back out in the ninth in- ning to finish the game. It’s really special. You really don’t get that from a lot of guys.”
Over his past three starts, deGrom is 3-0 with a 0.72 ERA, a stretch in which Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler have been placed on the disabled list and Robert Gsellman has regressed in a seesaw season.
“[DeGrom] had his offspeed stuff really working today, and his slider and curveball were as good as they have been,” manager Terry Collins said. “He is starting to pitch, and that is what we want out of him. I don’t care about the strikeouts, I want to get outs, and that is what he has been doing his last few outings.”
Bruce stroked a goahead RBI single in the eighth against lefty Steven Okert and Wilmer Flores’ run-scoring double later in the inning gave deGrom a cushion. In the ninth, Michael Conforto deliv- ered a pinch-hit RBI single before another run scored on a wild pitch. The victory was the Mets’ second straight after they were swept four games in Los Angeles to begin this trip.
Asdrubal Cabrera reached base four times, a day after saying he is unhappy with his position switch to second base and wants the Mets to trade him.
Flores’ homer against Johnny Cueto with two outs in the fourth gave the Mets their initial run.
But deGrom (7-3) was the biggest factor. Just 2 ½ weeks ago, he was a mess after getting shelled for a second straight start in a loss at Texas, prompting Collins to put his arm around the struggling pitcher in the dugout.
“This is what I want to do every time out there,” deGrom said. “That is kind of what I expect from myself, and that is why those other ones were so
frustrating, going out there and not finding a way to get outs.”
Brandon Belt swatted deGrom’s first pitch of the seventh inning for a homer to left-center, tying it 1-1. The hit was only the Giants’ fourth and marked only the second time in the game deGrom allowed a runner to reach second base.
But deGrom returned to pitch a perfect eighth after the Mets rallied for two runs against the Giants’ beleaguered bullpen.
“He kind of does what he wants out there,” Bruce said.
In the fourth, deGrom dodged his only real trouble, striking out Belt and Brandon Crawford successively to end the inning after Joe Panik walked leading off and Buster Posey singled.
“[DeGrom] is a good pitcher,” Collins said. “Once he got over the little blip he had, I think he is going to continue on, and I think he is going to have a real big year. We have got to make sure we take care of him. We don’t need anyone else going down.”