The New York Mets just wrapped up one thrilling series with the Atlanta Braves. In what was entering the series, a potential huge swing in the NL East that could ultimately decide the winner, the Mets could not have done any better for themselves. Led by the dominance of Jacob deGrom, the Mets took the fifth game of this pivotal series at Citi Field with a 5-2 win.
The Mets are now a whopping 31 games over .500 on the year with a 70-39 record. After taking four out of five games with the Braves, the Mets now have a 6.5-game lead in the division.
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deGrom dominates in Citi Field return
In his second start of 2022 and first at Citi Field, Jacob deGrom proved that he is still the same elite pitcher. He pitched 5.2 innings and threw 76 pitches. deGrom gave up just one hit, which was a home run. He allowed one walk as well. These two base runners were where his earned runs came from.
In this terrific outing, deGrom recorded 12 strikeouts. His slider was virtually untouchable. On 20 sliders thrown, the Braves swung and missed at 18. In the first inning, he started with a heater on his fastball that hit up to 102 MPH. deGrom got the needed run support and, as a result, his first win of the 2022 season.
Braves hitters whiffed on 18 of 20 (90%) sliders they swung at from Jacob deGrom today.
deGrom is the first pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) to have opponents swing at a single pitch at least 20 times and whiff on 90% of them. pic.twitter.com/rMFQzaK5WV
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 7, 2022
Following deGrom’s excellence, Joely Rodriguez came in and did a fantastic job. He pitched 2.1 innings and threw 30 pitches. Rodriguez allowed just one hit and recorded four strikeouts. With the Mets bullpen concerns, hopefully, Rodriguez can build on this performance down the stretch.
The great Edwin Diaz recorded the final three outs in this one. He threw 14 pitches and was overbearing, with three strikeouts in the ninth inning. In total, the Mets pitching recorded a tremendous 19 strikeouts in this win. Diaz now has 26 saves on the year, which places him third in the league.
Good day from Mets bats
The Mets lineup consisted of quite a few noteworthy performances in this one.
All-Star Pete Alonso kept up his inspiring play. He was 1-for-3 with a double, two RBIs, a run scored, and a walk. Alonso now has a stat line of .283 batting, 29 home runs which have him tied for fourth in baseball, and 95 runs batted in, which places him second.
The other two runs batted in during this game came from Mark Canha on a well-hit double to left-center with two outs. Canha also reached base with a walk.
Multi-hit games all came from Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Tomas Nido. Nimmo had three, Lindor and Nido, both two. Nimmo is now batting .273 and Lindor .270. They each scored a run in this game too.
Jeff McNeil went 1-for-4 with a run scored on a wild pitch in the final game of this series. Daniel Vogelbach reached base with a walk, and he scored a run as well.
The Mets batting order put together a great 10-hit game and did more than enough to win the fourth out of five in this huge series.