Colorado falls to Mets for ninth straight time in games played at New York.
Colorado’s players are impressed by young ace after being shut down
new york» A stat worth noting, now that the Rockies have been shut out in back-to-back games by the New York Mets: In 14 career games at Citi Field, Troy Tulowitzki was a .438 hitter and drove in 11 runs.
A point worth making: Tulo never faced Jacob deGrom.
“DeGrom is the best pitcher in the game, hands down,” Carlos Gonzalez said Wednesday night, after the Mets right-hander shut down the Rockies on two hits over seven innings in a 3-0 Mets win. “I’ve faced a lot of good pitchers, but his stuff is the best I’ve seen.”
The Rockies have seen Max Scherzer and Matt Harvey this week. They see Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke regularly.
But they’ve seen deGrom twice, and they still haven’t scored.
“His fastball jumps,” Gonzalez said. “He throws 98. His changeup is also good, his slider has a lot of angle to it and he has a good curveball. When you get to two strikes with a guy like him, you don’t even know what to look for.”
The Rockies got to two strikes often against deGrom, and 10 times they got to three strikes. He walked four, helping them to their two scoring chances, but then he got even better.
Their best chance came in the fifth inning, which DJ LeMahieu opened with a double to right field. LeMahieu stole third on ball four to Michael McKenry, and after Brandon Barnes struck out, manager Walt Weiss called for Jorge De La Rosa to put down a safety squeeze.
De La Rosa got the bunt down, and LeMahieu started down the line. But when Mets third baseman Juan Uribe fielded it, LeMahieu stopped. As Uribe threw to first, LeMahieu retreated to third base, where he was stranded when deGrom threw a 97 mph fastball past Charlie Blackmon.
“I might have been able to go, but with Charlie coming up, I didn’t want to take a chance,” LeMahieu said. “(Uribe) looked me back right before I wanted to go. For me, it felt like it would have been an easy out (at the plate).”
LeMahieu had another chance in the sixth, batting with two outs and two on after deGrom walked Gonzalez and Ben Paulsen. But deGrom fired a 95 mph fastball past him for strike three.
“We were just talking that the sign of a good pitcher is he turns it up with runners in scoring position,” LeMahieu said. “(DeGrom) does that.”
The Rockies have wasted three straight strong outings by their own starting pitchers. De La Rosa allowed just two runs in six innings Wednesday.
“Our pitching is doing a good job,” Gonzalez said. “Their pitching is better.”
The Mets’ young pitching has been the talk of baseball Harvey gets the most attention, but deGrom was the rookie of the year in 2014 and has followed that up with 11 wins and a 2.03 ERA this year.
In 15 starts since May 16, deGrom has been even better, with a 1.46 ERA that is the lowest in the majors in that span.
As Gonzalez said, he may well be the best pitcher in the game right now.