Jacob deGrom at Citi Field Saturday night showed why he is a contender for his second NY CY Young award. With a steady mix of 97 mph fastballs with life, 92 mph hard breaking sliders and 92 mph nasty change-ups, he painted a masterpiece against a Dodgers powerhouse. The only problem though was that there was another master artist in the ballpark tonight, LA’s Hyun-jin Ryu who has is own plans on a possible CY Young award.
In contrast to deGrom, Ryu relied on an arsenal of fastballs, cutters, change-ups and curve-balls. The fact that he was able to add and subtract speeds on all of his pitches kept the Mets off balance as they saw over seventeen different velocities, ranging from 71 mph to 93 mph. His command of all of his pitches and amazing control was outstanding.
And so it went, inning after inning with the Mets having two hits off of Ryu and the Dodgers managing only one off of deGrom through the first 6 innings. Both of them matching each other pitch by pitch. A true old time pitchers dual and something we haven’t seen in a long, long time.
“They got a good lineup,” deGrom said. “My focus was figure a main way to get these guys out.” It was vintage deGrom, He retired 16 straight Dodgers between a hit by a pitch in the second inning and a Corey Seager single in the seventh.
The Mets needed this win, 3-0, as they kept pace with the Cubs for the second NL Wild Card.
There was no thought about the ball being juiced up or that the seams were flat. These two All Stars defied all that has been normal in baseball for the past few seasons where we have watched game after game dominated by the home run and shifts.
Both Ryu and deGrome were lifted after seven innings. deGrom threw 101 pitches 65 for strikes with no walks and 8 strikeouts while allowing three hits. Ryu threw 90 pitches 61 for strikes no walks and 6 strikeouts.
That my friends is Leonardo da Vinci vs Michelangelo.
After all of that the game reverted back to the analytical approach of righties pitching to lefties and lefties pitching to righties. Dodger manager Dave Roberts used three pitchers in the 8th inning. Lefty Adam Kolarek for one out, righty Joe Kelly for out number two, and lefty Jouio Urias to try to keep the game tied at zero.
But Urias, the one time high ceiling prospect, loaded the bases by hitting pinch hitter Brandon Nimmo and walking Amed Rosario. Then pinch hitting for Seth Lugo with two outs, Rajai Davis lined a bases clearing double into the left field corner to finally give the Mets the lead.
With the Mets ahead three to nothing Justin Wilson retired the Dodgers in order in the ninth to earn the save. Forget about all these dopey things MLB is doing to try and speed up the game. Take the juice out of the ball and give us more games like this one that took 2:20 to play.
This was the shot in the arm the Mets desperately needed. This is how you support a magnificent performance by your number one pitcher. Lugo and Wilson did their job tonight. What this team needs is for others out of the bullpen to equal what the crowd of 39,264 got to see.
They also saw that this is a team that never quits. The Mets have been counted out so many times this season and keep coming back. Where ever they finish this year, Mets fans have to be excited about the makeup of this club.