Vintage Jacob deGrom start gives NY Mets fans deja vu in the worst kind of way

Jacob deGrom threw his second one-hitter in his last three starts. He had 7 innings of shutout baseball with only one hit against him on August 31st against the Athletics. On Thursday night, deGrom went 6 innings with one hit against him. The former New York Mets ace added 12 strikeouts on his way to some unfortunate history.

According to OptaSTATS, deGrom had a MLB first, not because of what he did but how the team around him failed.

"Jacob deGrom is the only MLB pitcher in the modern era to toss a scoreless start with 12+ strikeouts and no walks and leave with a 3+ run lead but have his team lose the game."

The only difference between this deGrom outing and many in his Cy Young winning 2018 campaign is the Texas Rangers managed to give him some run support. The Mets often left him high and dry because even getting 3 runs was too much.

This was a classic Jacob deGrom start in all of the worst ways

Checking back on the 2018 game logs, we find multiple instances of deGrom striking out 10+ and allowing 1 or fewer runs with the Mets losing.

An April 21st game against the Atlanta Braves might be the closest to what happened with the Rangers. deGrom pitched 7, allowed 4 hits, and walked 2 while fanning 10. He departed in a 0-0 tie only for the Mets to score 3 runs immediately in the top of the 8th. AJ Ramos gave up 2 in the bottom half. Jeurys Familia allowed another pair in the 9th. His Game Score for this outing was at 77, tied for his fourth best of the season.

On May 23rd, the Miami Marlins managed to beat the Mets despite deGrom going 7 shutout frames again with 4 hits, 2 walks, and 8 strikeouts. This time he left with the lead. Familia, again, blew the game. Don’t put all of the blame there. The Mets scored only one run.

The story wasn’t much different in 2019. The Mets lost 1-0 in extra innings to the San Francisco Giants on July 19th. deGrom had 7 shutout innings, 3 hits, 3 walks, and 10 strikeouts. Only 3 hits by the Mets all day, it was eventually won on a fielding error by Dominic Smith in left field.

Every pitcher has “days like these” but for deGrom it has been way too plentiful. It became practically his signature during his back-to-back Cy Young seasons with the strongest conversation in 2018 being whether or not a pitcher could win the award with a losing record. He ended up at 10-9 with a 1.70 ERA that trumped all talks.

Now 38, deGrom is showing there’s gas left in the tank. His fellow Rangers, unfortunately, haven’t been so eager. Jakob Junis was charged with all 4 runs without retiring a single hitter. They’re now 3 back in the AL West and 2 from a Wild Card berth which their 72-75 record suggests they have no business competing for either.

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