The Jacob DeGrom Streak That Spanned Three Years, Four Managers and 40 starts

Story posted September 27, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Logan Bourandas

It’s no secret who the most dominant pitcher in the MLB has been over the past few years.

Jacob DeGrom won back-to-back Cy Young Awards in the 2018 and 2019 seasons with some of the best seasons from a pitcher in recent memory.

On top of that, he’s made four All-Star games and was in the top-10 of MVP voting twice.

None of that is what this article is about.

Let’s rewind back to the end of DeGrom’s second Cy Young season.

In September of 2019, DeGrom and the New York Mets faced the eventual World Series champion Washington Nationals. DeGrom faltered, allowing four earned runs through seven innings while striking out six batters as the Mets fell 11-10.

That start was the last time DeGrom allowed more than three earned runs until last Saturday against the Oakland A’s.

Going back to that 2019 season, DeGrom made four more starts after the Nationals loss and went seven innings in all of them. The Mets won all four of those games as they were on a hot streak to end that season and DeGrom only allowed one run in that span.

Now we move the clocks forward to the COVID-19 season in 2020.

The year may have been shortened and the Mets struggled during the season but DeGrom still made 12 starts and went five innings in all but one of them. That one game was late in the season against the Philadelphia Phillies where DeGrom only lasted two innings and gave up three runs before being pulled due to a right hamstring spasm.

While he didn’t three-peat, DeGrom still came in third in that year’s voting behind Trevor Bauer and Yu Darvish.

Now back to a normal schedule in 2021, DeGrom was off to a historic start in the first half of the year.

Up until the first day of July, DeGrom didn’t even allow more than two earned runs and went at least five innings in all but one start.

That one start was starting out as a great one for DeGrom as he threw three perfect innings with eight strikeouts before being pulled with a shoulder issue. DeGrom made four more starts after that before being shut down for the rest of the season following the All-Star break.

That July was the last time we saw DeGrom on a major league pitcher’s mound until last month.

DeGrom was slowly eased in for his first couple of starts but quickly found his form with eight or more strikeouts in between his first start and his most recent start where the streak came to an end.

In Oakland against a struggling A’s team, DeGrom went just four innings and allowed five runs, the first time he’s done that since May of 2019.

It’s dominance from a starting pitcher that we may never see again.

At 34 years of age, DeGrom still has a 2.93 earned run average through his first 10 starts this year as he looks to be a key part of a Mets World Series run.

DeGrom is scheduled to make his next start this weekend in a big series for the NL East division against the Atlanta Braves.

 

Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.