{"id":234522,"date":"2021-04-24T07:57:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T04:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/mets-jacob-degrom-is-a-must-see-baseball-giant\/"},"modified":"2021-04-24T07:57:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T04:57:07","slug":"mets-jacob-degrom-is-a-must-see-baseball-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/mets-jacob-degrom-is-a-must-see-baseball-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"#Mets’ Jacob deGrom is a must-see baseball giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Mets’ Jacob deGrom is a must-see baseball giant<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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All-time greatness touches down on this star-crossed franchise every five or six days.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t app<\/a>reciate what Jacob deGrom is doing here in 2021, very much including the strikeouts by the dozen, then baseball just isn\u2019t your sport.<\/p>\n

Baseball\u2019s best pitcher \u2014 its best player, period? \u2014 authored a gem for the ages Friday night at Citi Field, at a time when his club badly needed it, yet that tells only part of the story: The right-hander took a baseball outcome that has turned depressingly pedestrian \u2014 the strikeout \u2014 and elevated it back into an event. A celebration.<\/p>\n

In mowing down 15 Nationals en route to a 6-0 Mets victory, halting his club\u2019s losing streak at three game<\/a>s, deGrom set a personal record for Ks and recorded his second career shutout. Then there was this: His 50 strikeouts for the season, over 29 innings pitched, established a new Major League Baseball plateau for a pitcher\u2019s first four starts of the season. Oh, and his ERA dropped to an insane 0.31.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re witnessing something special,\u201d deGrom\u2019s manager Luis Rojas said.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old, arguably the most athletic pitcher in the game today, naturally delivered the game-winning RBI, his fifth-inning, one-out double scoring J.D. Davis from second base and pausing the Mets\u2019 multi-season narrative of failing to hit in the clutch, and he added an eighth-inning single, meaning that he delivered as many hits as he allowed (and he didn\u2019t walk anyone, either).<\/p>\n

\"Jacob
Fans cheer on Jacob deGrom during the Mets\u2019 win over the Nationals on Friday.<\/figcaption>
Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTonight I felt really good,\u201d deGrom said. \u201cThat\u2019s the best my changeup\u2019s been in a long time. So I had three pitches working (fastball, slider and changeup) and I was comfortable throwing them at any time. That made it a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fun defined the night, which served as another chance to appreciate the return of fans, even in pandemic-limited percentages, to the ballpark. Would deGrom have pulled this off last year in front of only staff, media<\/a> and cardboard cutouts? Can\u2019t say for sure, yet we know for certain that the piped-in crowd noise wouldn\u2019t have started chanting \u201cMVP!\u201d as deGrom\u2019s night leapt from sublime to ridiculous. It wouldn\u2019t have roared with approval when, at 100 pitches through eight innings, deGrom, up second, approached the on-deck circle in the bottom of the eighth, the signal that he would try to go the distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I walked out there, it sounded like the place was full,\u201d deGrom said of the announced crowd of 8,130, and then he registered a 1-2-3 ninth inning to retire the last 19 batters he faced.<\/p>\n

Even the grouchiest old-school baseball observer couldn\u2019t mope about deGrom mowing down an opposing lineup with strikeouts galore, right? He is both artist and assassin, hitting his spots and blowing hitters away; 10 of his pitches registered 100 miles per hour or faster. That he supports his own cause with his bat should throw a bone to the old-schoolers, no?<\/p>\n