Jacob Completely deGrominates Nationals
To a certain extent, you can say Jacob deGrom underperformed tonight. After all, Andrew Stevenson and Starlin Castro managed to get a hit off of him.
That’s it. That was the total extent of the Nationals offense, and honestly, it was a miracle they even made contact.
deGrom set a career high with 15 strikeouts. He was around 100 MPH the entire night. He retired the final 19 batters he faced.
Really, there are no words to describe how great deGrom was. That’s because they haven’t been invented yet. Likely, that’s because we have not seen anything like this.
It’s at the point with deGrom where he’s struck out 14+ in three consecutive starts. He has a 0.31 ERA on the season. With this complete game shutout, his career ERA is lower than Tom Seaver‘s Mets ERA, and deGrom has a better ERA+ to boot.
5️⃣0️⃣ punchouts (and counting) through his first four starts of the season. A new major league record. ? pic.twitter.com/IaEa2SmidW
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 24, 2021
Dominating from the mound isn’t enough for deGrom. No, he also has to be great at the plate. Tonight, he was 2-for-4 at the plate with two runs, a double, and an RBI.
Rakers who pitch. #LGM pic.twitter.com/sPmDvLBCG0
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 24, 2021
That’s right. Jacob deGrom had as many hits as he allowed. He also scored and drove in more runs than he allowed. In fact, deGrom drove in as many runs in this game as earned runs he’s allowed. Of course, that also means he scored more than he’s allowed.
Overall, the Mets won 6-0, and it was almost all because of deGrom. He was pure magic to the point where he awoke a sleeping Mets offense.
After his third inning RBI double off Erick Fedde, Brandon Nimmo would hit a two RBI single. That three run inning put the game out of reach.
Nimmo returned to the lineup after missing two games dealing with a hip issue. He was great too going 3-for-5 with two runs, a homer, and four RBI.
"score runs" pic.twitter.com/E8ZfhqWO7p
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 24, 2021
The other run was driven in by Dominic Smith with a seventh inning single driving in Nimmo. Of course, this is all filler. What the night was really about was deGrom.
We are seeing pure greatness every fifth day. You never know what he’s going to do next. The only thing you do know is he’s going to amaze.
Game Notes: Michael Conforto hit for a second consecutive game for the first time since the second game of the season. After a day off due to his defense, J.D. Davis returned to the lineup. He fielded the only chance he had, but he also had a three strikeout game.