See what a little down time can do?
Everybody needs a vacation now and then, and for the Mets after their All-Star week respite, the few days away from the game turned out to be the best medicine a 39-47 team can take.
Maybe they hit the beach. Maybe they caught up with family time. Maybe they just rode their couch and watched the All-Star festivities. Or maybe they hit the gym, as they ripped into Rockies pitchers for 19 hits and 14 runs in a 14-2 victory at Citi Field with the typically reliable Jacob deGrom on the hill.
DeGrom held Colorado to two runs and four hits in eight innings, throwing 104 pitches, 73 for strikes. He struck out 11, the seventh time this season he had reached doubled digits in Ks, the 17th time in his career. With his 104th pitch he closed out the eighth baffling All-Star Charlie Blackmon for his 11th K of the game.
The shoulda-been-an-All-Star righthander was aided by a sterling defensive play in the sixth. With DJ LeMahieu on third after a walk and a wild pitch, Gerardo Parra hit what first looked like a sac fly to Yoenis Cespedes in left. LeMahieu tagged but didn’t make a fast break. Cespedes threw a laser to Travis d’Arnaud to nail the runner, but home plate umpire Mike Everitt first made a safe call. Terry Collins challenged. Replays showed d’Arnaud touched LeMahieu’s back foot before his front foot could touch home plate.
The hit parade began in the second, as Mets batters touched Rockies starter Jon Gray for four hits and two runs. And they knocked him out in the third, batting around for six hits and six runs. In the fourth, TJ Rivera banged out his fifth home run to left. In the seventh, Michael Conforto popped his 15th home run. Every Met from the starting lineup had at least one hit, including deGrom, who had two knocks.
Josh Edgin closed out the non-save situation with a shutout ninth, despite giving up two hits and one walk. DeGrom is now 10-3 on the season.
The Rockies, third place in the NL West had been slip sliding away before the break, losing 13 of 18 games. Their woes continue.