Mets ace Jacob deGrom had yet another stellar performance on Saturday afternoon against the Miami Marlins, but it went down as a loss due to a lack of run support.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner discussed the loss with media, and acknowledged that baseball is a team game and he isn't upset with his teammates for struggling at the plate.
"No, not really, it's a team effort, we're out there trying to win every baseball game," deGrom said. "Those guys had a tough matchup today. Their guy was really good on the mound, he didn't make many mistakes. He did a good job pitching with some runners in scoring position. That's part of baseball. These guys do a good job of preparing everyday, and they go about it in a professional way, and today we just got beat."
He gave up a solo home run to Jazz Chisholm in the second inning on an 0-2 pitch to make it 1-0 Marlins. The 100-mph fastball was driven an estimated 402 feet to the upper deck in right field, and that pitch bothered deGrom more than anything else from the game.
"I think that's why you bring in a good routine, it's frustrating, I think I'm more frustrated about the fastball that was hit for a homer," deGrom said. "He sold out for it, probably should've done a better job of recognizing that he was gonna try to get to that fastball. That's what kind of eats at me, is giving up that run there. Tomorrow is a new day, we gotta win that baseball game and win this series."
Manager Luis Rojas spoke to media after the loss, saying that you could call deGrom's impressive 14-strikeout performance a waste. The team struggled at the plate once again, managing just three hits and going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
"Definitely disappointing, it's another good outing from Jake," Rojas said. "He gives us a chance to be in the game, score some runs, and win a ball game. Not being able to come through with a big hit, we had a couple of chances today and didn't come through, just disappointment. An outing like that, you can call it a waste, that's a strong outing, I know he gave up a solo homer, but that's one of the strongest outings I've seen him have.
"Lot of swing and misses, keeping the ball down, holding runners, he did a lot of things, fielding his position, at the plate, running the bases. He was our best player out there today... Definitely a lot of disappointment, but we just have to find ourselves to deliver those big hits. We keep creating some scenarios, we just haven't delivered the big hit in the first games we've played."
The Mets hitters have had a slow start to the season, scoring just 16 runs in five games with eight of those runs coming in the first win of the season against the Phillies. Their opening weekend series with the Washington Nationals was postponed, causing the team to have off a few extra days, and pushing deGrom's first start. He spoke about that being a factor to the team's offense so far this season.
"I think it definitely didn't help us having a little bit of time off," deGrom said. "I think that factored into my first start of where do we draw the line of how many pitches or ups or what not. And these guys ramped up and then didn't really get to see live pitching for a number of days. I think that has a lot to do with it. Hopefully get going soon and start a winning streak."