SAN DIEGO - I'm an idiot!
In his last start, in an attempt to squeeze in a quick game, I went to the half inning bottom during Jacob deGrom's last start against the Phillies. Being the fool that I am, I neglected to change the coaching sliders while doing so.
The end result? deGrom throws an ungodly 175 pitches, gets tagged for 11 earned runs and issues seven walks before the light bulb goes on and I can "rescue" him. The guy has already been in the IL this year and I go ahead and commit a criminal act upon my ace.
I felt awful but Jake made me feel better on Thursday, going into the eighth in effortless fashion as the Mets blanked the Padres, 7-0, to get a desperately-needed W.
For his part, deGrom fanned seven, walked one and yielded three hits over 7 2/3 innings to move to 10-3 and drop his ERA from a 2.90 to 2.68. That ERA has no business being where it's at, so you can totally lay the blame on this guy.
Amed Rosario belted a lead-off homer in the first to spark the Amazins and Tomas Nido, in his first action of the season giving Wilson Ramos a day off behind the dish, threw out a runner and single, double and two RBI. Big showing by Tomas!
Michael Conforto, who .223 average is troubling, belted his team-leading 17th home run.
The win keeps the Mets two-games back of the Braves in the NL East and a game up on the Nats. New York is currently in position for the second wild card behind the Padres, but closed San Diego's lead in that department to six games.
Back at it tomorrow with Steven Matz on the bump opposite Chris Paddock. Dom Smith gave Pete Alonso a day off at first so the Polar Bear should be hungry to eat at the plate!
