New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom and his dominance in July

When the calendar flips to July, the New York Mets get elite performances from ace Jacob deGrom.

No month has been kinder to New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom than July. On the other hand, there is no 31-day period where he has been crueler to opposing hitters. It’s a month where he has put up some spectacular numbers in his career one cannot help but take notice of.

In 28 career starts in this month coming into the 2020 season, deGrom is 15-6 with a 1.79 ERA. Not only is he shutting down opposing offenses, but it appears he’s actually getting some rare run support for his effort.

The fun doesn’t stop there. deGrom has plenty more notable numbers in this midseason month.

For one, hitters are only slashing .200/.245/.296 against him this month. Amazingly, it’s not even his best in each category if we look at them by months. In September/October regular-season games, he has held batters down to a .292 slugging percentage. The batting average against and OBP narrowly win while the ERA has a large lead compared to the 2.53 ERA against deGrom in the final month.

deGrom has been especially terrific in his last two Julys. In 2019, he went 2-0 with a 1.09 ERA in five starts. A year earlier, in four starts for the month, deGrom went winless at 0-2 but with a 1.74 ERA.

Even before he owned a Cy Young, deGrom was at his best in July. In his rookie season back in 2014, deGrom had the first amazing month of his career in July. He was 4-1 with a 1.39 ERA. He followed that up with a stellar sophomore July performance which included a 2-1 record and 1.67 ERA.

It’s not unbelievable for a pitcher to have a month with a sub-2.00 ERA. Even guys whose baseball cards become doorstops have months like these.

What separates deGrom from them and many others is how consistently spectacular he can be with the calendar flipped to a particular page. The fact that he’s also doing it in July—a month where hitters typically warm-up well—is also noteworthy.

deGrom began 2020 with one of the greatest July resumes you can put together. With 28 starts in the month under his belt now, it’s a large enough sample size to know this isn’t a coincidence.

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Just as we all know with complete confidence he is one of the best pitchers in baseball, we can also now officially proclaim him a master of July.