Birthday boy Jake thinks he’ll be ready to start Monday

On his 33rd birthday, Jacob deGrom gave Mets fans a present: He said he’s likely to make his next start as scheduled. Rojas and deGrom wouldn’t quite say the deity would certainly pitch the first game of a doubleheader against the Braves on Monday, but both said he was on track to do so. DeGrom said that “if I feel terrible,” that could stop him from pitching, but “I don’t anticipate that.”

The pitcher continued to blame his shoulder issue on swinging a bat, not throwing.

While deGrom’s lethal bat — he’s hitting .423 with a .885 OPS this year — might be neutralized, the Mets should be getting some reinforcement in the lineup soon. Albert Almora was set to start in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The outfielder had been out since May 11 after crashing into the Citi Field wall. And in even better news, Rojas said that Jeff McNeil was set to return and play one of games in

Monday’s doubleheader.

McNeil had been out since May 16 and had been through a stop-and-go return from a strained hamstring.

There was a new injury, though, as there always is with these Mets. Joey Lucchesi was put on the 10-day injured list with elbow inflammation, making room on the roster for Almora. Lucchesi had been breaking out, allowing just one run in 10.1 innings over his last two starts.

After discovering his injury, the Mets realized he would likely not be able to make his next start through the rotation, but he was scheduled to have an MRI, Rojas said after Saturday’s games.

IT’S NOT JUST THE METS

As the Mets plow through a stretch of 33 games in 31 days, including three doubleheaders in a week, they’ll face at least one tired opponent. Saturday’s Braves-Cardinals game was rained out, pushing it to a doubleheader on Sunday, with the second game starting at 7:00 pm in Atlanta. The Braves face the Mets in a doubleheader in Queens on Monday.

GARY AND KEITH EXILED

Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez, who have lamented calling road games off a monitor all season, were booted from the broadcast booth on Saturday. As the Mets played in Washington, Cohen and Hernandez were relegated to calling the game from the media dining hall in New York. The reason? There was an elementary school graduation on the Citi Field diamond, according to Cohen on the Pix 11 broadcast.