Will extra rest help Jacob deGrom get back to his "A" game
Bombshell-type news is hard to come by at the World Series. But Mets Game 2 starter Jacob deGrom dropped a doozy during his news conference before Tuesday night's series opener.
Asked about his famous long hair and how it stacks up against the dreadlocks of Royals Game 2 starter Johnny Cueto, deGrom revealed his plans to visit the barber's chair after the postseason.
"It's driving me nuts," deGrom said. "I've got to get rid of it."
The good news for the Mets is that deGrom's 3-0 postseason record has nothing to do with the length of his hair. It's the quality of his pitches and the toughness he displayed, especially in his last two outings.
After blowing away the Dodgers with 13 strikeouts in seven shutout innings in Game 1 of the NLDS, deGrom had to overcome early struggles in wins over the Dodgers in Game 5 and the Cubs in Game 3 of the NLCS.
"They're not as much fun when you're out there," deGrom said. "But after you look back on them, to be able to get a team out whenever you are kind of struggling definitely is a little more impressive than when you go out there with your best stuff."
Terry Collins has been open about his concerns that deGrom may be hitting a wall as he has thrown more innings (211) than ever before. That's one reason Collins gave the Game 1 start to Matt Harvey -- so deGrom could have an extra day of rest.
"He's at a stage where the ball doesn't have the life down, even though he has the velocity," Collins said. "It doesn't have the life it once had. He's been missing balls up in the zone. For me, that is that release point, that consistent release point you have to make the pitches. If you start to get a little fatigued, that hand just doesn't catch up sometimes. That's why we wanted to give him an extra day, because the last time we pushed him back a little bit, he came out throwing great. We're hoping that extra rest is going to make a difference tomorrow night. This guy is as good as there is in the league."
Said deGrom: "I didn't feel fatigued out there. I just felt I was having trouble locating, which happened to me early on this year. I don't know if it was fatigue. I feel good now, so I don't think the rest hurt me."
DeGrom never has faced the Royals. He has faced one Royal: Backup catcher Drew Butera is 0-for-3 against him. That's it.
But that doesn't mean deGrom has been poring over the video or fretting about his lack of familiarity with the AL champs. Quite the opposite, actually.
"Honestly, I haven't looked at it that much," he said. "I know they put the ball in play a lot. A team that doesn't strike out a whole bunch. So it's kind of what we've been doing before in the past couple of series -- try not to look at it too early and kind of mess yourself up. So we're going to do the same thing that we've done, look at them the day before, and come up with a good game plan before I go out there."