DeGrom aims to turn corner against Cubs
Pitchers with comicbook nicknames brought Chicago Cubs hitters to their knees in the first two games of the National League Championship Series, so perhaps it will hearten them to know Jacob deGrom has no superhero moniker.
Oh, and they’ve actually hit him pretty well.
Chicago’s offense, which clubbed six homers in a single NL Division Series game and 10 overall in dispatching the St. Louis Cardinals, totaled three runs in dropping the first two games of the NLCS to the New York Mets.
Capitalizing on Citi Field’s cool conditions, right-handers Matt Harvey, aka The Dark Knight, and Noah Syndergaard — or Thor — gave up seven hits and three runs in 131⁄3 total innings while striking out 18 in wins.
With the series moving to the friendlier and warmer confines of Wrigley Field, the Cubs hope their bats will heat up with the weather, expected to be in the mid- to high 60s by game time.
“The guys will feel their hands a little bit better,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “It should work out somewhat better for us offensively.”
Especially if deGrom shows up Tuesday as vulnerable as he was every time he has faced the Cubs. They beat him twice this season, hitting three homers and totaling eight runs (seven earned) in 101⁄
3 innings for a 6.10 ERA. DeGrom wasn’t sharp, either, the only time he faced Chicago in his rookie of the year season in 2014, allowing four runs in five innings.
No wonder the hard-throwing right-hander has spent little time dwelling on what went wrong vs. the Cubs, preferring to focus his video work on the outings in which he did well, in hopes of replicating those mechanics.
“I haven’t looked back at it too much. I know they weren’t very good starts,” deGrom said of his outings vs. Chicago this year, one at home and one at Wrigley. “I’m going to flush that, and I know this is the playoffs, so it’s going to be a good start for me.”
Cubs hitters don’t have an extensive track record vs. deGrom, with Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo accumulating the most plate appearances, nine each. Castro is 2-for-8 with a walk and Rizzo 3-for-9 with a homer.
What stands out most about the collective 52 plate appearances of the current Cubs players against deGrom in his brief career is the seven walks against 11 strikeouts for Chicago hitters, to go with the three homers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers can attest to the difficulty of achieving that kind of success off him. DeGrom struck out a record-tying 13 Dodgers while giving up five hits and a walk in seven scoreless innings in Game 1 of their NLDS, then came back to beat them again in Game 5 despite having lesser stuff, throwing six innings of two-run ball.
“It was unbelievable how many times he was one pitch away from coming out of that game and he made the pitch he had to make, and that tells you exactly the kind of kid he is,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.
But Collins acknowledged deGrom ran into trouble for an extended stretch this season when his pitches didn’t have their usual sink. He allowed 16 home runs in 191 innings, a perfectly acceptable figure but not as good as the seven in 1401⁄3 he yielded in 2014.
“One thing we know about the Cubs,” Collins said, “they’re going to do some damage on fastballs, I don’t care how hard you throw it.”
They didn’t against Harvey and Syndergaard, high-octane pitchers like deGrom, in large measure because they mixed their heaters with highly effective breaking pitches. DeGrom also resorted to his secondary stuff in the second game against the Dodgers, getting five of his seven strikeouts on pitches other than fastballs.
DeGrom’s resourcefulness is part of what makes him a tough challenge, especially for a young team that hasn’t seen him much and has a collective batting average of .159 in this series. The Cubs hit 12 homers in their first five playoff games, including two in the wild-card matchup with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but have one in the NLCS.
Maybe that’s why slugging rookie Kris Bryant, who has a home run and a walk in three plate appearances against deGrom, found more comfort in returning home than in the team’s track record against him.
“It’s just a completely different ballgame, the playoffs,” Bryant said. “I noticed out there, Harvey and Syndergaard pitched us completely different than they did the first times we faced them. They have three pitchers who are really good, but definitely, playing here, that gives us more confidence. DeGrom is a good pitcher, and I’m sure he’s going to bring it tomorrow. But I’m confident we’ll come out ready to go.”