You know you’re in for a weird game when Jacob deGrom scatters four hits in the first four innings, and they’re all solo home runs. But you can probably chalk that up to two things:
- Going up against a team that hits mistakes hard because the Cardinals are now a slugging team that isn’t so good in the field.
- Everybody in baseball either hits home runs, strikes out, or walks anyway.
But it was another example of how he battles without his best stuff. He threw some random helicopters on his off-speed stuff that got crushed. But he came back from that as he had the foundation to do it. He was still throwing hard and he wasn’t walking anybody. And perhaps Travis d’Arnaud helped as well, as Nelson Figueroa was astutely pointing out that d’Arnaud needs to start having a Plan B during games if a pitcher is getting rocked. d’Arnaud, for his part, held steady with deGrom and guided him through the rest of the game without incident. It’s something to watch going forward.
The Mets offense supported deGrom through his strange outing with six runs and gave deGrom his ninth victory of the season. Jay Bruce’s solo HR in the fifth gave the Mets the lead for good, and Addison Reed got the save after a rough eighth inning for Jerry Blevins put the Cardinals one closer. Blevins is going through a rough stretch as he has given up four runs in his last six appearances to raise his ERA from 2.13 to 3.21. His last hitless/walkless outing was June 14th. Perhaps all of his appearances early in the season have his arm hanging by a thread as Blevins seems to be walking towards the House of Overused Arms. Fernando Nieve will be serving punch with his good arm.
Zack Wheeler starts later today. Steven Matz starts on Sunday thanks to the rainout against Washington, otherwise known as the gift that keeps on giving.
Today’s Hate List
- Paul deJong
- Randal Grichuk
- Dexter Fowler
- Jedd Gyorko
- Carlos Martinez’s blue hair
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