Jacob deGrom's latest gem for Mets tops Cy Young competition

CHICAGO — Two games, separated by 770 miles and linked by the NL Cy Young Award race, stole baseball’s spotlight for a night and helped shape the month to come Tuesday.

At Wrigley Field, Jacob deGrom dominated before the Mets and Cubs, tied 1-1 in the 10th, had their game suspended by rain. They will resume at 1 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.

At Citizens Bank Park, Max Scherzer and the Nationals took on Aaron Nola and the Phillies. Three pitchers vying to be named the league’s best pitcher, all going on the same day with less than five weeks to go.

The Cy Young race isn’t — and probably shouldn’t be — measured as a round-by-round boxing match. But if it was, credit this round to deGrom.

“He continues to do the job,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “He’s just an all-around player — and the best pitcher in baseball at this point.”

In eight innings against the NL’s highest-scoring offense, deGrom allowed one run, eight hits and one walk. He struck out 10, reaching double digits for the ninth time in 27 starts. The Cubs’ only run came in the seventh, when Ben Zobrist’s hard grounder under the glove of first baseman Jay Bruce set the stage for a game-tying sacrifice fly from David Bote.

DeGrom's Cy Young competitors didn’t match him.

For Scherzer, it was a relative off night. He allowed the Phillies three runs in five innings, matching his shortest outing of the year (April 4) and the most runs he had allowed since before the All-Star break. Odubel Herrera and Jorge Alfaro burned Scherzer for home runs, half of the four hits he allowed. Scherzer’s ERA is 2.22.

For Nola, it was more of his same. He held the Nationals to two runs (one earned) in seven innings, striking out eight and yielding four hits. It’s been more than a month since he allowed more than two runs or pitched fewer than six innings. Nola’s ERA is 2.10.

For deGrom, it was his usual excellence. His 19th consecutive quality start matched Tom Seaver’s 1973 run for the most in franchise history. DeGrom’s ERA is 1.68.

This was a well-rounded effort by deGrom, too. He drove in the Mets’ only run in regulation with a single to shortstop in the sixth. He fielded several comebackers, two of which led to forceouts at second (including an inning-ending double play in the eighth). And he threw the fastest pitch of his career, a 99.7-mph fastball to Javier Baez for a called third strike in the first.

“I felt pretty good tonight,” deGrom said with a smile. “I looked up [at velocity readings] a few times and knew it was coming out pretty good.

“I was able to locate [fastballs] in and out, up, down, and those guys were geared up for it — and I kept throwing it. I wanted to make them hit it before we went to the off-speed, have that in my back pocket for the third time through.”

At a time when deGrom is approaching a career-high innings total — Tuesday brought him to within three starts or so of his 201 1/3 from last season — he seems to have taken his game to yet another level. In six August outings, deGrom had a 1.24 ERA while facing a who’s-who list of name-brand pitchers, including Luis Severino, Jake Arrieta, Madison Bumgarner and Cole Hamels (five shutout innings) in his past four games.

Tuesday included a brief scare. In the fourth, deGrom attempted to field Baez’s dribbler, but slipped, was slow to get up and limped back to the mound. Callaway and athletic trainer Brian Chicklo checked on him, but two practice pitches were enough for deGrom to wave them away.

Those moments of tension might have been the greatest threat to deGrom’s Cy Young candidacy all night. He followed with four more innings (plus the RBI).

“Your heart starts racing. You start [thinking], ‘Oh no.’ It was nerve-wracking for sure,” Callaway said. “At first I thought it was an ankle. Then the outside of his knee kind of got tweaked a little bit. But obviously, [with] his ability to go out there and pitch the rest of the game, it’s really a non-issue.”