There may or may not be a good reason, but sometimes it doesn’t work for you in a particular place. I remember it was that way for Henrik Lundqvist in Montreal. He had not won there in over five years. Sure enough, he won the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals in Montreal en route to winning the series in six. 

As a Mets/Rangers fan, I found this to be informative. It shows that no matter what happens in the regular season, the best players raise their games in the postseason.  It doesn’t matter if it’s Nrw York, Montreal, or even Chicago. Yes, Chicago because it’s Jacob deGrom‘s Montreal. 

In his two starts in Wrigley Field, he’s been terrible. He’s 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA and a 1.700 WHIP. In his career, deGrom is 23-14 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.047 WHIP. deGrom has struck out 7.2 batters per nine in Wrigley as compared to his 9.5 career numbers. He’s allowed a triple slash line of .263/.383/.553 in Wrigley compared to his career numbers of .220/.269/.321. It’s the reason why his innings per start has dropped from his career average of 6.1 innings per start to 5.0 in Wrigley. 

These are ugly numbers. They promise to get uglier with the current conditions in Wrigley. We know that when the wind is blowing out in Wrigley, it can get ugly for pitchers. So, how do you neutralize batters in conditions primed for hitters?  Strikeouts. 

This year deGrom has struck out 9.7 per nine. In Game One of the NLDS, he was pumped up, and he struck out 13. Overall, he averaging 13.8 strikeouts per nine this postseason. It’s a big reason he’s only allowed two earned runs in the deciding Game Five when he had nothing. When you can strike batters out, you can always get out of a tough inning. deGrom did that time and again in Game Five. 

Overall, I’ve seen it happen. How a player performs doesn’t depend on the venue, it depends on the player. deGrom is special, and he will special again tonight. Wrigley will finally be friendly to him.