The Mets got the 2018 Jacob deGrom back tonight and to celebrate, the club gave him his 2018 run support.
It’s was that kind of night at foggy Citi Field as deGrom was able to shake off his recent swoon, after making some mechanical adjustments with pitching coach Dave Eiland and mowed the Reds down, one by one.
And he scattered five hits over seven innings and even worked out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth, after the Reds were fortunate recipients of an error, walk and hit by pitch, however deGrom was able to strike out the side to keep the then no-hitter going.
But this is the deGrom the Mets have come to expect, especially after giving him the extension this past spring and for the Mets to win, this is the deGrom that needs to regularly come out every five day and play the role of stopper.
You see, even with some newly found offense in Jeff McNeil and Peter Alonso, still needs to be on top of his game, especially with the bullpen failing early on. Without Jeurys Familia, who mysteriously came down with a sore shoulder today, after blowing the save last night, the club will struggle for those bridge innings to get to closer Edwin Diaz.
Without Familia and lefty Justin Wilson, Mickey Callaway will struggle to find that eighth inning guy. Tonight, newly called up Ryan O’Rourke took care of the first two outs and then after a walk, Seth Lugo was able to get Yasiel Puig out on a nice play by leftfielder Jeff McNeill.
But those magical moments from these guys are fleeting and remember deGrom gave Callaway seven strong innings. That’s not going to happen all too often the other four days. Even with their best stull, the back of the rotation usually goes six innings tops.
That’s where the problem lies. Robert Gsellman is reliable and Lugo is good for stretches, but because of the lack of depth, Callaway is forced to go to Diaz more often and this week we saw two game sealing homers from their young closer.
Now before you can say Craig Kimbrel, that’s a pipe dream, unless you want to give up on Diaz as the closer and play top Scott Boras dollar for the former Red Sox closer. It’s not going to happen.
Since it’s May 1, the Mets are not the only team with a terrible and thin pen., In fact most of the division is having problems in that area.
Until the deadline, there little you can do, because no one is giving up relief pitching and frankly what is available is disappointing reclamation projects, which the Mets don’t want right now.
Instead the club will have to wait and hope deGrom continues this streak, while Familia and Wilson come back on the mend pitching like it’s 2018.
And the offense needs to hope that today was because of the fog, because if that goes into a slump right now, the 2018 Mets from May and June will definitely be back.
No one wants to see that. Believe me.