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For the first time in his career, believe it or not, Jacob deGrom threw a shutout on Sunday afternoon. That was the highlight of an all-around great day for the Mets, as they beat the Phillies to take the weekend series heading into a three-game set against the Cubs in Chicago.
For much of the early part of the season, there was understandbly concern surrounding deGrom’s lack of velocity, but he pitched effectively in spite of that for a bit before he started throwing harder. In his shutout, he averaged 94.4 miles per hour on his four-seam fastball, per Brooks Baseball. And he struck out seven, walked one, allowed just one hit in the process.
With that, deGrom has a 2.38 ERA on the season. That’s the third-best mark in baseball among qualified starting pitchers, behind only Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner and a tick ahead of rotation-mate Noah Syndergaard. Over his last five starts, he has a 1.64 ERA, and if he’s going to pitch at a level that even closely resembles that, it’d go a long way toward helping the Mets return to the playoffs despite having lost Matt Harvey for the year.
At the plate, the Mets supported deGrom’s excellent outing with five runs, all of which were plated by extra-base hits. Juan Lagares hit a two-out triple in the second inning to score James Loney, Curtis Granderson hit a solo home run in the third, Jose Reyes doubled to score deGrom from first in the fifth, and Asdrubal Cabrera put the icing on the cake with a two-run home run in the eighth.
A sweep would have been nice, but a series win is never a bad outcome.
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Win Probability Added
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Big winners: Jacob deGrom, +38.7% WPA,
Big losers: none
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Lagares triples to score James Loney in the second, +11.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Asdrubal Cabrera flies out with James Loney on second in the second, -3.6% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +38.7% WPA
Total batter WPA: +11.3% WPA
GWRBI!: Juan Lagares