DeGrom wanted to finish what he started

ATLANTA — Jacob deGrom’s brilliance hasn’t been good enough for the Mets.

Though the ace righthander’s ERA has dropped from 1.75 to 1.52 over his last two starts, the Mets are 0-2 in those games, with a mixture of bullpen meltdowns and anemic offensive production sabotaging deGrom.

On Monday, he surrendered one run over seven innings and watched Seth Lugo blow the save in both the eighth and ninth innings in a 4-3 loss to the Braves in the first game of a split doubleheader on Charlie Culberson’s walk-off homer.

“I think it’s frustrating no matter what, whether I’m pitching or I am not,” said deGrom, whose ERA is best in the National League. “We don’t want to lose and when we lose games it’s frustrating. Whether it’s me or anybody else, that is not what we’re trying to do.”

In his last seven starts, deGrom has pitched to a 0.45 ERA. A significant factor has been his ability to escape trouble: opponents are hitless in their last 28 at-bats against deGrom with runners in scoring position.

DeGrom returned from a 31minute weather delay — in which it barely rained — and pitched a perfect sixth on only eight pitches. Tyler Flowers homered leading off the seventh against deGrom, who then allowed two additional base runners. But deGrom got three straight outs, finishing his day at 115 pitches.

DeGrom’s concern was he would get removed before getting a chance to extricate the Mets from trouble in the seventh.

“I wanted to stay in,” deGrom said. “I did not want to come out of that game. I have been fortunate and been able to pitch out of jams this season and I felt like I was going to be able to get out of that inning. I knew the guys coming up. I knew how I wanted to pitch them and I wanted to stay out there.”