Jacob deGrom leaves after six innings with right flexor tendinitis, Mets beat the Padres 3-2
On a night that could have been spoiled by Jacob deGrom’s early exit with right flexor tendinitis — which both he and his manager are unconcerned by — the Mets (31-24) pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Padres (37-28) for the righty’s sixth win of the season.
After the game, deGrom said he first felt weirdness in his arm earlier in the week, an ominous statement from a pitcher who already missed a start with right lat tightness and later went on the IL for discomfort in his side.
“I’m not too concerned about it because it didn’t get much worse as the game went on,” deGrom said of the tendinitis. “In the sixth inning when I was trying to loosen up, I could feel it. It was tightening up a little bit.”
That sixth inning proved to be his last. DeGrom fanned ten Padres and allowed one hit over those six innings. When he left after 80 pitches, alarm bells went off across Mets land, which deGrom did his best to shut down in his postgame interview.
“I’ve had a couple elbow issues before and I know what that feels like, so my level of concern is not too high. I’m pretty sure it’s something we can treat and I won’t miss any time.”
He also expounded on the process he went through after leaving the game, describing a ligament test that involves moving his arm in a way that checks for pain. That test went OK, as deGrom mentioned that he dealt with a ligament tear early in his big-league career, and that this “didn’t feel anything like that.” He did not undergo an MRI or any sort of imaging and does not anticipate having to change his routine in between starts, which has him on schedule to pitch on Wednesday against the Cubs.
Manager Luis Rojas echoed the same feelings as his best player.
“I’m not concerned either, because Jake is not. This is a guy that knows his body really well. I’m glad that he was honest. We already went through a stint with him (on the IL), and we did that because he said how he was feeling.”
“Right now he said that he wasn’t concerned, so that’s what we trust. He’s going to get his treatments and do his in-between start routine. He expects to make his next start. I expect him to make his next start. I’m trusting my pitcher.”
Whenever that next start comes, deGrom will get another chance to transcend reality, reinforcing his status as a pitcher that baseball has never seen before. His 0.62 ERA entering the San Diego start was the lowest ever for a pitcher in their first nine starts of a season. After blanking the Padres, his 0.56 ERA was also the lowest in baseball history through a pitcher’s first ten starts, and the list of impressive feats grows every time he leaves the dugout.
This time, it was a two-run single at the plate that proved to be the difference in the game. The timely hit and dominant pitching gives deGrom five RBI as a hitter and four earned runs allowed as a pitcher.
“I was just trying to see the ball and put a good swing on it,” deGrom recalled of his fifth-inning knock. “When I got to two strikes I was just gonna try to battle. I was fortunate enough to get a pitch over the plate that I could do something with.”
The Mets’ indomitable ace got his big hit off the Padres’ Blake Snell, who shared a mound with him in a matchup of 2018 Cy Young winners. Though Snell has faltered a bit in 2021 — his first year in San Diego — he came out of the gates looking good. He limited traffic on the base paths until the bottom of the fourth, when Jonathan Villar singled again to spark a rally.
That rally swelled into a bases loaded, one-out scenario, prompting a mound visit before the night’s most pivotal moment to that point. Dom Smith was coming up for a tough lefty-lefty confrontation with Snell. A deep flyball could have given deGrom the one measly run of support he usually needs. A shot to the gap could have possibly put the game away.
Smith bounced into a check swing double play on the first pitch. Inning over, things still tied at zero.
The fifth inning satisfied the entertainment quotient. Wil Myers got the only hit off deGrom and was gunned down trying to steal second, and the final out came on a popup in foul territory where Villar had to dodge a bucket of baseballs that was spilled when the Padres’ bat boy scampered out of his way.
The Mets ended Snell’s string of zeros minutes later. Kevin Pillar further ingratiated himself as a fan favorite by shooting a high fastball into left field, busting it out of the box, and putting his injured face in the line of fire with a headlong dive into second. Billy McKinney then jumped on the first pitch he saw, trading places with Pillar on his fourth double in 13 games as a Met.
Staked to a 1-0 lead, the rest of the fifth inning included a Snell balk and deGrom scooping his knee-high fastball into left field for the second and third runs. A 1-2-3 sixth inning — his 22nd straight without surrendering a run — would be deGrom’s last before the elbow flared up and he passed the baton to Miguel Castro.
The Padres jumped on Castro, greeting him with two runs. The Mets’ reliever left with a stiff neck after Jake Cronenworth took him deep. Rojas also ensured after the game that Castro’s neck is not an area of grave concern. The visitors put runners aboard in the eighth and ninth but couldn’t push them across home, and Edwin Diaz wrangled four outs from the Friars to cement his 11th save.
Now, all eyes turn to deGrom’s elbow and the impending updates from the Mets regarding the severity of his tendinitis.
