Jacob’s shatter
ATLANTA — Jacob de Grom is reduced to pitching for numbers in this lost Mets season, and Saturday night he reached a milestone of note.
The ace right-hander earned win No. 15 this season, to establish a career best, with seven strong innings in the Mets’ 7-3 victory over the Braves at Sun-Trust Park that snapped the team’s five-game losing streak.
“He’s got two starts left, and I hope he wins them both because it would be great to look up and see him with a lot of wins on the board,” manager Terry Collins said.
The next notable milestone for de Grom will be reaching the 200inning plateau in the regular season for the first time in his career. DeGrom, who has pitched 195 ¹/3 innings, will receive his first shot at reaching that goal against the Nationals on Friday.
“The plan for next year is hopefully everybody is healthy and go to a World Series again,” de Grom said. “So I think getting to this amount of innings is something I want to do in the next few years, so getting there and seeing what it’s like is definitely a big plus for me this year.”
The Mets gave de Grom (15-9) plenty of offensive support, led by rookie Gavin Cecchini’s career-best 3-for-4 performance with two RBIs. Dominic Smith continued his hot September by smashing a two-run double in the seventh that gave de Grom a 7-1 lead.
DeGrom lasted seven innings and allowed one run on five hits with seven strikeouts and two walks. Freddie Freeman homered in the sixth for the Braves’ run against de Grom.
➤ Noah Syndergaard’s return to the Mets will take another detour, in the name of erring on the side of caution. Though team officials considered activating the right-hander from the disabled list for a short outing against the Braves on Saturday or Sunday, the newest plan calls for Syndergaard to throw live batting practice in the coming days before he is re-evaluated. Syndergaard has spent the last 4 ½ months rehabbing a torn right lat muscle and last week had soreness that caused the Mets to decelerate his rehab, following an appearance for Single-A Brooklyn. In recent days Syndergaard has played catch and thrown a bullpen session. “We are just trying to make sure we do it the right way,” Collins said.
➤ Amed Rosario and Travis d’Arnaud both returned to the starting lineup, two days after both were removed from a game against the Cubs with injuries. Rosario had been sidelined with a tight right hip flexor and d’Arnaud had a twisted right knee.