Mets ace Jacob deGrom feels better, but still monitoring lat injury
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NEW YORK — Jacob deGrom listened to his body and decided to play it safe.
The Mets ace was scratched from his start against the Cardinals in St. Louis with a sore right lat on Tuesday. By Wednesday, he was feeling better, but planned to wait a little longer before making his next start.
“I’m feeling good now,” deGrom said Wednesday before the Mets’ doubleheader against the Cardinals. “The plan’s to see the doctor again tomorrow and let him re-evaluate. Then the plan is to play catch again tomorrow if everything goes well.”
DeGrom went six innings in his last start against the Red Sox, giving up one earned run on three hits and one walk with nine strikeouts. He was visibly frustrated with his performance, coming off three consecutive 14-plus K outings.
“I noticed my mechanics were off,” deGrom said. “Looked at some of the video and got some of the numbers and my arm was down a little bit so, like I said, flying open. So that’s obviously going to put more stress on the arm, but didn’t think too much about it. Went about all my recovery stuff and to be honest, I felt pretty good. I threw my bullpen in Philly and I was like ‘OK I feel pretty good.’
“First day here, woke up and I noticed my lat was pretty sore,” he continued. “Then woke up yesterday and didn’t really notice much of an improvement. ... If it improved a little bit, I think I would’ve been fine, would’ve been battling through some soreness, but decided to let 'em know and wanted to get it looked at just to be safe early in the season. ... So tried to err on the side of caution and just hopefully miss one.”
DeGrom wasn’t certain he would be ready to make his next start through the rotation, instead deferring to what the team’s physician determines on Thursday.
He had his last start, against the Nationals pushed back after pitching in Colorado, but said he needed the extra day because pitching at Coors Field usually requires more post recovery time. This time was not like Colorado.
“You’re not used to pitching in Colorado and it does take a little longer to recover, so that one I didn’t really feel bad,” deGrom said. “I came back and pitched against the Nationals and felt like everything is in line.
