All eyes were on Jacob deGrom on Monday when he took the mound for his regularly scheduled start against the Braves, something that was far from a certainty after he left an outing early for the second straight time last week.
But deGrom, who felt better after leaving his start on Wednesday night with shoulder soreness, looked like his usual self, tossing five shutout innings while striking out six and allowing just one hit, the result of a miscommunication in the outfield on a ball that should have been caught.
For deGrom, while the results were the same and his season ERA dropped to a microscopic 0.50, the objective was to come out of the outing healthy and feeling like he had taken steps toward preventing more early exits the rest of the season. He felt he accomplished that, addressing mechanical tweaks in-game, which he alluded to as possible reasons behind his lat and flexor injuries that caused him to leave starts early earlier in the season.
"In the third [inning] I lost it a little bit," deGrom said. "Noticed I was flying open and that's why I wasn't able to locate. But when [Ronald Acuna Jr.] came up there, I was able to make a couple pitches when I needed to. My arm slot was getting a little bit toward the third base side and I was more rotational. It was good to make the adjustment. Once we talked and we were at the 70 pitch mark, we kind of said that was enough…they said they thought it was enough and I said 'OK, let's be smart.'"
The main concern for the Mets is deGrom staying healthy given his immense value to the team and the wealth of other pitching injuries around him (Joey Lucchesi and Robert Gsellman joined Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Carrasco on the list of Mets pitchers that will miss significant time), but deGrom is focused on getting to a place where a conversation isn't needed after 70 pitches during a shutout, and he can break his stretch of no starts of 90 pitches or more since April 28.
"I don't like coming out of baseball games," deGrom said. "Hopefully that last one was the last time this year. I thought it was the right move there."
Part of deGrom's work to stay on the mound and get the length he desires is by limiting his swing at the plate. Manager Luis Rojas told reporters he and the training staff would talk with deGrom about his swing, which has helped produce more runs this year than he has given up on the mound, but the universal belief seems to be that the risk outweighs the reward, and deGrom will mellow out his swing to make sure he can stay on the mound.
"I felt like I aggravated the shoulder on the swing last start, so I was just trying to be smart there," deGrom said of his lone plate appearance on Monday, which featured a much shorter swing. "I enjoy hitting, but my main focus is to be out there on the mound, that's how I feel I'm going to help the team the most. Me batting left handed, that's my lead arm, so you work so one-sided…I think we're gonna have to come up with some sort of swing progression to get more used to my at-bats."
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