This was as close to scoreboard watching as these 2018 Mets are going to get.
On the Citi Field mound was Jacob deGrom essentially documenting his season — which is to say, excelling while being undermined by his teammates, who were joined in incompetence this time by home-plate ump Tony Randazzo.
Meanwhile, on the out-of-town scoreboard above a left-field upper-deck that housed perhaps a half-dozen diehards was 27 PHI vs. 31 WSH. Translated: No. 27 Aaron Nola for the Phillies and No. 31 Max Scherzer for the Nationals.
Nola and Scherzer, despite being 245 miles away, were pretty much in inning-for-inning synchronicity Thursday afternoon with deGrom. The three main NL Cy Young contenders were simultaneously pitching. Think of them as marathoners separated by a few feet after 22 miles — the outcome still unknown and, thus, sensitive to every remaining step.
This is the only relevant race left for these Mets. The magic numbers tied to ERA and batting average against and strikeouts. Fortunately for deGrom, wins are not as swaying a stat for most voters as they were even a few years ago.
Because deGrom did not win Thursday. He lost. Or more fittingly, those in the same uniform as deGrom lost and again took the righty ace along for the joyless, exasperating ride.
Devin Mesoraco, who maybe should not have been playing since he began the game with a sore neck that got worse after a second-inning at-bat, according to Mickey Callaway, allowed a third-inning unearned run to score with a passed ball.
With two outs and a runner on first in the fourth, deGrom struck out Nick Hundley with a 0-2 pitch in the eyes of all but Randazzo. DeGrom and the Mets fielders were moving toward the home dugout. DeGrom insisted afterward it “had nothing to do with the Cy Young,” but a generally poker-faced competitor betrayed his frustration.
He followed with three more balls to walk Hundley and stalked around the mound like a man who just realized he had been pickpocketed. Callaway said he did not send pitching coach Dave Eiland to settle deGrom because “it’s not like he walked [Hundley] on four pitches.” But, in reality, he did since he threw four straight balls after 0-2. Callaway also said he did not want to waste a mound visit with the pitcher due up, but it was Madison Bumgarner, perennially among the majors’ best-hitting pitchers.
Bumgarner socked a first-pitch RBI double. DeGrom, returning to the mound, after backing up the plate, barked at Randazzo.
“I told him he can’t miss that.” But deGrom also acknowledged, “I didn’t do a good job shaking it off and making a pitch.”
And since the Mets were facing Bumgarner at Citi Field, well, 2-0 meant game over. Including the 2016 wild-card game, Bumgarner is 6-0 and has allowed three runs in 46 innings at Citi Field. The lefty had a 33-inning Citi Field scoreless streak snapped by Todd Frazier’s seventh-inning solo homer.
Of course, deGrom was done after six, having thrown extra pitches as much due to the guys behind the plate (Mesoraco and Randazzo) as to the Giants in the batter’s box. But deGrom also lacked velocity, feel and faith in his fastball, which led to a season-high four walks. That he still yielded just two runs (one earned) and struck out 10 reflects the Giants’ offensive ineptitude, but also deGrom’s craft and competitiveness.
In a way this outing was a tribute to deGrom. For he lacked his best stuff, yet still became the first pitcher since 2014 to go a 23rd-straight start permitting three or fewer runs. The Giants managed one hit in 11 at-bats with men on base against him. And deGrom finished with three straight strikeouts, all on fastballs, as if to accentuate he could find it when necessary.
A 3-1 loss dropped deGrom to 8-8. But his ERA stayed the same 1.71 it was entering this game. The only qualified starter to finish lower in the past 32 years was Zack Greinke at 1.66 in 2015. He did not win the NL Cy Young. Jake Arrieta did, with Clayton Kershaw also garnering first-place votes.
A similar three-way tussle is ongoing again. Scherzer lost Thursday in permitting two runs in seven innings, but he struck out 10 and leads the majors in innings and strikeouts, plus has a 2.13 ERA.
Nola, the most unassuming in this race, also has a 2.13 ERA after the kind of ace-like effort — eight shutout innings in Washington after Philadelphia lost the first two games of the series — that elevates a candidacy. So does his MLB-leading Wins Above Replacement total, per baseball-reference.com.
Inning by inning a story 245 miles away was being revealed high above the left field seats, while on the mound at Citi Field, deGrom would have been forgiven had he let out a Cy of frustration.
