After the Mets broke a three-game losing streak in Game 1 of their doubleheader against the Pirates Wednesday, it was time to go for the sweep with Jacob deGrom on the mound. There wasn’t much of a question as to whether deGrom would bring the goods (he almost always does), but would New York give him any run support?
They did, as the game eventually finished with the Mets winning 10-0. It was their 18th shutout of the season. As for deGrom? He wasn’t his sharpest, but that didn’t matter against one of baseball’s worst teams. The right-hander ordered his usual, which included seven shutout innings while allowing just three hits, one walk, and eight strikeouts.
Just another day at the office for the best pitcher on the planet. Through 43.1 innings, his ERA currently sits at 1.66 while sporting a 2.0 fWAR. Since making his season debut on August 2nd, that 2.0 fWAR is tied with Zac Gallen and Spencer Strider as the best in baseball.
DeGrom seemingly proves to us that he’s not of this world just about every time he takes the mound. But sometimes, the stats that get shared about his performances are just beyond ridiculous and it’s another reminder that he’s clearly an alien. Here are three tweets that prove this theory is true.
DeGrom is off to another historic start
Remember when deGrom got his 2021 season off to an incredible start before having his year get cut short due to injury? Of course you do. Through just 92 innings of work, the right-hander posted a 1.08 ERA with a 0.55 WHIP, a 45.1% strikeout rate, and a 3.4% walk rate. He managed to accumulate 4.9 fWAR in the process.
Although his 2022 workload is about half of what he did the year prior to this point, it looks like the man is at it again:
Pitchers All-Time to have 60+ K, <= 2.00 ERA, & <=.600 WHIP in 1st 7 G of a season:
2021 Jacob deGrom
2022 Jacob deGromThat’s it. @michaelmayer22 @SNY_Mets pic.twitter.com/1UeMCOas7I
— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) September 8, 2022
Nobody has hit those numbers in their first seven starts of any season. Not Roger Clemens. Not Randy Johnson. Not Pedro Martinez. Not anybody…but deGrom has. Twice. Should it be a little more impressive that he’s repeated this feat after not pitching in a regular season game in more than one full calendar year? It should be.
He’s a master at run prevention
As many baseball fans know, deGrom’s brilliance spans far beyond the small sample sizes we’ve discussed thus far.
Following his dominant outing at PNC Park on Wednesday, deGrom has now toed the slab for 205 starts in his big-league career. He’s allowed no more than one run in 49.3% of them. No, that’s not a typo. And yes, he’s the only one to do this at such a high frequency to this point in his career:
Jacob deGrom has allowed one or no runs in 101 of his 205 career starts.
That’s the most such starts through 205 career starts in MLB history.
— Michael Mayer (@michaelmayer22) September 8, 2022
This explains why it feels so weird when deGrom gives up multiple runs in a single appearance. It doesn’t happen often. Among the seven starts he’s made in 2022, the right-hander has allowed more than two runs just once. That came on August 18th against the Braves (because of course it did). He allowed three runs on five hits in 6.2 innings pitched, all while still striking out nine hitters and walking none.
When was the last time deGrom allowed more than three earned runs in a single start, you ask? It’s been quite a while. The last occurrence was on September 3, 2019 against the Nationals when the ace allowed four runs in seven innings pitched. It was actually the second straight start he allowed four earned runs (he allowed four in seven innings against the Cubs on 8/29/19, too).
As you can imagine, deGrom’s 38 straight starts without allowing more than three earned runs is on the cusp of breaking another MLB record:
Most consecutive starts in MLB history of allowing three earned runs or fewer:
39 Jim Scott
38 Ray Washburn
38 Jacob deGrom— Michael Mayer (@michaelmayer22) September 8, 2022
Is there really anything else to say about this guy? Not really…other than the fact that people want him to stay healthy. When a player displays this much greatness, any kind of injury or setback feels like we’ve been robbed of seeing something special.
Injuries did prevent us from seeing deGrom make a run at one of the most incredible starting pitcher seasons ever in 2021. We could say the same thing about 2022, but he’s healthy now and it’ll be fun to see this version of the Mets’ hurler take the stage in October, which he hasn’t done since 2015.
More on ESNY:
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Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
