Mickey Callaway on Jacob deGrom’s first start: 'I thought he was OK'

In this era of truncated outings, most starting pitchers would sign up for Jacob deGrom’s line against the Cardinals on Saturday.

But it was not wholly satisfying for deGrom — or Mickey Callaway.

After Noah Syndergaard’s 10-strikeout but otherwise underwhelming performance on Opening Day, the manager and the Mets’ co-ace did not think allowing one run in 5 2⁄3 innings deserved rave reviews.

“You know, I thought he was OK,’’ Callaway said after the Mets’ 6-2 victory. “I’m sure he probably would say he [should] be better than that. First start of the year, I’m sure he was amped up and ready to go. Had great stuff.’’

Early on, that is. DeGrom had five of his seven strikeouts in the first three innings and had allowed only an infield hit by Jose Martinez.

He gave up two singles and a run in the fourth. Calloway did not intend to have him stay longer than the fifth, but deGrom had a quick inning and was sent out for the sixth.

After Tommy Pham reached on an error, deGrom struck out Matt Carpenter and Marcell Ozuna before being lifted for Robert Gsellman.

“When it’s cold and dry like that, it’s tough to grip the ball,’’ said deGrom, who threw 101 pitches. “You don’t have the feel and then you’re sitting in there between innings and it’s not as warm as normal, you get a little stiffer than you’re used to, but I was able to battle and keep us in there.

“Felt good early on. There in the middle innings, kinda lost the feel for fastball, slider, so I kind of went more changeup . . . Other than that, I was able to keep them off the board, gave them one run. These guys did a good job of putting up some runs for me.’’

DeGrom largely supplemented his fastball with a mostly effective changeup. “It was good, at times it was bad,’’ he said. “It’s a feel pitch and I felt like that was probably my second- best pitch today, so that’s kinda what I went to.’’

He was not pleased with his slider, saying, “I didn’t really feel it. I was having a hard time gripping the ball. Slider got flat. Later on, it didn’t have as great a feel. I don’t know mechanically-wise how it looked. I’m going to look at that. I feel like I was flying open a little bit.’’

Overall, deGrom said he was “definitely pleased. I was able to mix it up, try to keep them off-balance as much as I could. There’s days when you have your best stuff and days when you don’t. Those are the days you gotta really battle through.’’

The Mets now will get a first look at the middle and back end of their rotation. Steven Matz will pitch Sunday and Matt Harvey and Seth Lugo are scheduled for the fourth and fifth games.

No one will find fault if those three come close to the starts of Syndergaard and deGrom.

“That’s very nice,’’ deGrom said of the 2-0 start. “Big win the other day and wanted to come out here and win again today to start the season 2-0 and hand the ball over to Matz and let’s see what he can do.’’