The Mets' bats finally backed Jacob deGrom on Saturday, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh to give the Amazins a 4-3 win, and deGrom the W, in Game 1 of their doubleheader with Colorado – but it wasn't without another Herculean effort from Jake.
Over six innings deGrom fanned 14 batters, an impressive enough feat when you consider there are only 18 outs in those six innings. However, it got better: when Edwin Diaz struck out the side in the seventh to lock down the save, it gave Mets pitching 17 K's over 21 outs – and that 81 percent strikeout right is, per Elias Sports Bureau, the highest percentage of outs recorded by strikeout in a game in the Modern Era (since 1900).
The previous record holder was Boston, whose pitchers got 77 percent of outs via the K in a Sept. 25, 2016, game at Tampa Bay. Perhaps some may see that one as more impressive given it went 10 innings (and Red Sox hurlers struck out 23 that day), but nonetheless, a dominant performance that let the Mets defense have a bit of a breather.
In the game, deGrom almost set another record by himself: he struck out nine batters in a row at one point, falling one shy of Tom Seaver's record of 10 consecutive strikeouts, set in a 1970 game where his 10 in a row finished out a 19-strikeout performance.
"That would have been nice to reach but fell a little short," deGrom smiled.
deGrom's streak technically started in the second, when, with two on and no one out, he punched out Josh Fuentes looking. The next eight batters all went down swinging (one on a foul tip), and the streak ended one shy when Josh Fuentes reached on an error on a comebacker that ricocheted past deGrom and was thrown away by Jeff McNeil.
"You don't see that often," manager Luis Rojas said. "I mean, we didn't have a ball put in play for like three innings. The guys were just out there getting to their positions with no balls in play, like just running in and out of their dugout for three innings."
Of course, in true Jake fashion, the out before, and the out after, his nine in a row were also both strikeouts, but those don't count – so deGrom "settles" for being one of nine pitchers to even reach nine in a row, and his second straight 14 K performance (after fanning that many in eight innings against Philadelphia last Saturday).
"The fastball was the best weapon for him," Rojas said. ""We talk about Jake getting better every year, and we talked about the challenges of the weather today. Yeah, it's a little bit of a different start, and then, all of the sudden, he makes an adjustment and does something special. That's what we call it: something special happening."
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