Jacob deGrom keeps it 100 (mph) as Mets win in his return, but club gets worrying updates on Noah Syndergaard, J.D. Davis
Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom delivers against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Jacob deGrom returned to the mound on Tuesday night and threw a 100-mile per hour fastball with his first pitch.
Mets fans exhaled.
In his first start since May 9 after a stint on the injured list with a sore right side, deGrom went five superb innings against the Rockies in the Mets’ 3-1 victory.
DeGrom allowed one run and three hits with nine strikeouts and was removed after 63 pitches in a 1-1 game. DeGrom’s ERA rose from 0.68 to 0.80.
Tomas Nido’s sixth-inning two-run homer was the difference as the Mets snapped a three-game losing streak.
Mets fans were overjoyed.
But news from Florida about Noah Syndergaard made Mets fans hold their breath again.
Syndergaard left a rehab start for Class A St. Lucie after one inning because of right elbow soreness.
The Mets said he was removed for "precautionary reasons," as if that was enough to stem the tide of worrying that will follow about a pitcher who is coming back from Tommy John elbow surgery.
"I was told it was more like discomfort," manager Luis Rojas said. "Nothing that is already concerning for the medical staff. He’s just going to get evaluated tomorrow — we’ll re-evaluate his status — but nobody is overly concerned."
It was Syndergaard’s second rehab start. He was supposed to go four innings. In the inning he did pitch, the righthander walked one and struck out one facing the Daytona Tortugas.
A scout who was present at Syndergaard’s truncated outing said via text: "He was 94-95 first few batters. 89-92 to the last couple."
More bad injury news: J.D Davis, who was rehabbing a sprained left hand with Triple-A Syracuse and then developed a stiff neck, has returned to New York for treatment on the hand, the Mets confirmed.
Meanwhile, back at Citi Field, deGrom opened with a very deGrom-like all-fastball, eight-pitch first inning.
That 100-mph first pitch was chopped to short by Raimel Tapia for the first out. The rest of the inning went like this: 100, 99, 99, 100, 101, 101 and 100, the last two producing outs (a Trevor Story fly ball to right on 3-and-2, and a Charlie Blackmon grounder to James McCann at first).
"Everything felt good," deGrom said. "Body felt good. Looking forward to hopefully running out there every five days for the rest of the year."
After the Mets took a 1-0 lead on McCann’s RBI groundout, deGrom picked up his first strikeout against C.J. Cron leading off the second. But Ryan McMahon tied the game with a homer to left-center on a 100-mph fastball.
DeGrom, who is hitting .471 (8-for-17), revealed that he aggravated his side injury on May 9 while swinging. Still, deGrom took two healthy cuts in his first at-bat in the bottom of the second and struck out on a 2-and-2 pitch.
In the bottom of the fourth, deGrom lined a two-out hit over the glove of Cron at first base and steamed into second with an apparent double ahead of the throw from Blackmon. No other pitcher in baseball would have tried that and most position players wouldn’t have, either.
"He was outstanding. This is who he is," Rojas said. "Just a complete baseball player. Not only the pitcher out there when he’s flashing the unbelievable stuff. All his pitches were tremendous."
But the Rockies challenged and deGrom was called out on a replay review because his foot came off the bag while Story kept the tag on.
It was the second time in two innings the Rockies challenged a safe call and had it overturned because the baserunner came off the bag and the fielder kept on the tag. It happened to Jonathan Villar for the second out of the third after he had apparently stolen third base.
Winning pitcher Miguel Castro (1-1) struck out four in two innings. Edwin Diaz walked one, but struck out the side in the ninth for his eighth save. Mets pitchers stuck out 16.
— With Tim Healey
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
