DeGrom homers, dominates on mound
NEW YORK » Toting his toddler around the clubhouse postgame, Jacob deGrom joked about the Father’s Day present he gave himself — the souvenir ball from his first big league home run.
“I think I got lucky,” the Mets ace said.
With 1-year-old Jaxon and his own dad in the ballpark, deGrom put on quite a performance Sunday. He shut down a bruising Washington Nationals lineup on three singles for eight dominant innings and also delivered the loudest hit in a 5-1 win that prevented a four-game sweep.
Fresh off pitching the Mets’ first complete game of the season in his previous start against the Cubs, deGrom turned in a complete effort, excelling with his arm, bat and glove.
“It was awesome,” is how he summed it up.
The NL East-leading Nationals had been 6-0 at Citi Field this season and had battered the Mets in three games this week, never trailing while totaling 18 extra-base hits. But they had trouble touching the blue-stitched balls — used all around Major League Baseball on Father’s Day — thrown by deGrom (6-3).
“You’ve got to put it on deGrom. We knew he was going to be tough going into today because they didn’t want to be swept at home,” Washington manager Dusty Baker said.
DeGrom mixed his fastball, slider and changeup well, fanned Bryce Harper with a 97 mph heater on his 105th and last pitch and walked off to a standing ovation. The righthander struck out six and walked two, and the only run against him was unearned.
A career .199 hitter in 176 at-bats coming in, deGrom also provided the biggest jolt. He hit the first pitch of the third inning from Joe Ross (3-3) over the wall in left-center.
“I was running pretty hard,” deGrom said. “I didn’t know it was gone.”
The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year, a converted infielder at Stetson University, kept holding down his helmet as he rounded the bases, making sure it didn’t fly off his flyaway hair.
The ball sat in a display box, on the top shelf of his locker, by the end of the game. He said the prize was destined for his dad, Tony.