World Series stud Madison Bumgarner endorses New York Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom for the 2018 NL Cy Young.
If you like a classic pitchers duels, Thursday is your day. New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom takes the mound at Citi Field against four-time all-star Madison Bumgarner of San Francisco. As good as the matchup may be, the bigger story may be that deGrom has his rivals support to take home the fifth National League Cy Young Award in Mets history.
It’s an uphill struggle for deGrom to win the hardware despite that the ace is leading the league with a 1.71 ERA. Toss in 204 strikeouts in 168 innings, .985 WHIP, 6.5 WAR, and the fewest home runs allowed per nine innings (.429), and its the stuff dream seasons are made of. His candidacy, however, is undercut by playing on a bad team as evidenced by an 8-7 record.
Watching from a distance, Bumgarner has seen the situation a little differently. In an interview with Joe Trezza of MLB.com, MadBum backed his counterpart in today’s game.
“It’s impressive. Going into tomorrow, you know you probably can’t give up a run. It’s so close with deGrom, [Max] Scherzer and [Aaron] Nola, too, but if I had a [Cy Young] vote, [deGrom is] probably where I’d go with it.”
Team Game
High praise coming from a pitcher who has been in the running to be the N.L.’s top pitcher in five of six seasons, before getting hurt in 2017. In those years, the Giants number one pitcher played on some offensively deficient in the Bay Area.
He can empathize with what deGrom is going through this year. MadBum went on to say:
“I know we get the wins and losses by our name, but you’re not winning games without the help of your team. You can lose them [yourself]. But the whole deal is a team effort. I don’t think there is any one answer to it. It’s not always your fault.”
The comment isn’t an inditement of the Mets as a whole. It’s support for a fellow pitcher and his plight.
The Wrap
At this point whether or not deGrom wins the Cy Young Award is out of his hands. The voters will make that call. All he can do is keep on doing what he’s been doing. Pitch better than anyone else in the game. Today will be another opportunity to make his case.
