The Mets surged out to a commanding lead of the National League East this summer without the services of the dominant Jacob deGrom. With the two-time Cy Young Award winner back in action, they look even more dangerous.
deGrom was nearly untouchable on Sunday against the Braves. He didn’t allow a baserunner until the sixth inning, ultimately finishing the game with 12 strikeouts and two runs allowed on a two-run homer in 5 2/3 innings to pick up his first win of the season. The performance gave him 1,523 career strikeouts—the most ever through a pitcher’s first 200 career games in MLB history.
The Mets went on to win, 5-2, taking four out of five from Atlanta over the weekend and extending their division lead to 6.5 games.
deGrom generated 25 swinging strikes on just 76 pitches in Sunday’s victory. Only six out of 19 batters faced were able to put the ball in play, and his fastball touched 99 miles per hour 21 times, topping out at 101.6 mph. After debuting on Tuesday against the Nationals, deGrom has fanned 18 batters with just five baserunners allowed in 10 2/3 frames.
Since the start of 2018, deGrom has a 1.95 ERA across 93 starts, with 792 strikeouts in 591 2/3 innings. After missing four months to start the season, he seems to be picking up right where he left off.
