When talking about New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom‘s 2018 performance, the conversation generally revolves around two things: this guy is on another planet right now, and why can’t the Mets support him at all?
There’s no other way to explain why a pitcher that owns baseball’s lowest ERA at 1.68 has just an 8-8 record. If there’s a better case for killing pitcher wins, I’m not sure I’ve seen it yet.
That’s a discussion for another day, though.
With his eight-inning, one-run, and 10-strikeout performance Tuesday night against the Chicago Cubs, he just finished up a stretch of incredible head-to-head matchups. The National League Cy Young hopeful has faced off against Luis Severino, Jake Arrieta, Madison Bumgarner, and Cole Hamels in his last four starts.
He came out the other side with just a 2-1 record, but also accompanied it with a 1.21 ERA (!), a .527 OPS allowed, and 41 strikeouts in 29.2 total innings.
But as it turns out, him facing other stud pitchers is more of a trend than we realized, according to Tim Britton of The Athletic:
An underrated Cy Young candidate: Whoever opposes Jacob deGrom, as that pitcher has combined to toss 147 2/3 innings of 2.50 ERA ball this season.
— Tim Britton (@TimBritton) August 29, 2018
While this is probably due to a mix of the Mets facing some really good pitchers and also just not being very good, it still gives a glimpse of what deGrom has been up against this year.
David Adler of MLB.com took things to another level by looking at the caliber of teams the right-hander is staring down every fifth day:
19 of Jacob deGrom's 27 starts have come against teams currently over .500. In those 19 starts, he has a 1.47 ERA and is striking out 11.12 batters per 9 innings.
— David Adler (@_dadler) August 29, 2018
Just about any way you slice it, deGrom has been ridiculous virtually all year long. He could be at a slight disadvantage when compared to Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola when looking at the wins column, but maybe — just maybe! — the Mets will help him reach double digits. Saying he deserves that is the understatement of the century.
During a year in which there haven’t been a ton of bright spots for New York, there’s at least a beacon of hope every five days, giving fans something worthwhile to watch.
Even if they’re still feeling frustrated by the end due to what feels like a constant lack of run support.
About Matt Musico
Matt currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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