After Wednesday night's loss to the Red Sox, Jacob deGrom has now given up just two runs all season, one on Wednesday and one against the Marlins on April 10.
The Mets have lost both of those games.
deGrom made one mistake in that loss to Miami, a home run to Jazz Chisholm in the second inning, and "faltered" in the second again on Wednesday when a pair of doubles led to the game's only run.
For deGrom, who was otherwise brilliant in six innings of work, picking up nine strikeouts to tie Nolan Ryan for the most strikeouts through the first five starts of a season with 59, the questions keep coming about his frustration level with what continues to be a putrid Mets offense when he is on the mound. But deGrom continues to deflect the blame back to himself, as the ace has been forced to strive for perfection every time out to give his team a chance to win.
"I try not to think too much about it," deGrom said of the Mets' offensive woes, which were front and center again in Wednesday's 1-0 loss. "I'm more disappointed that I wasn't able to make pitches in the second inning. I was trying to battle through, but just left some balls over the middle of the plate that got hit. That comes down to me trying to control what I can control, and I didn't do a good job of that in the second inning."
The lone run surrendered on Wednesday raised deGrom's season ERA to 0.51, still the best mark in all of baseball, yet the Mets are 2-3 in his five outings. deGrom has tossed 35 innings so far this season, and the Mets offense has scored a total of 10 runs in that span. Two of those runs were driven in by deGrom himself. Whether his lack of run support bugs him in private or not, he continues to place the blame on himself for the losses suffered when he's on the mound.
"Everybody is out there giving 100 percent," deGrom said. "Nobody wants to get out. We're out there competing, and that's all we can do, take it one pitch at a time. Those guys try to put together the best at-bats, and I try to throw the ball to the spot on that pitch. Sometimes you have to tip your hat to the other team. They did a nice job of keeping our guys off balanced."
deGrom has kept hitters off balanced all year, but when the offense is struggling this badly to score for their ace (and score as a whole, as the team has managed just one run in their last 21 innings), the most minor hiccups can be seen as game-altering outcomes. That's what deGrom's second inning was on Wednesday, and it was all he pointed to when talking about another overall dominant outing.
"I think I'm just disappointed because of how good I felt mechanically last time out there, and I wasn't able to repeat that," deGrom said. "I just felt like I should have been able to make pitches in that second inning. Give up a leadoff double, left some balls over the middle of the plate and they were hit hard…that's what's frustrating to me."
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