Mets Afternoon News: deGrom strengthens his Cy Young case

Meet the Mets

Jacob deGrom put one more notch in his belt in his Cy Young caliber season: a complete game. Even a rain delay couldn’t stop deGrom. He didn’t miss a beat and was dominant the whole afternoon, striking out nine Phillies. He capped it off with his three hardest fastballs of the day—98 mph, 99 mph, 99 mph—to the final batter of the game. He earned the win to go over .500 for the year and the Mets won 3-1.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue short and long, New York Times, Post, Daily News, Newsday, MLB.com, Bergen County Record.

Today the Mets and the Phillies conclude their series in Williamsport for the second annual MLB Little League Classic—a new, but already special tradition in baseball. It’s bound to be an especially memorable day for Little League alumni Todd Frazier, Michael Conforto, and Scott Kingery.

The scouting report on Jeff McNeil was that he was potentially a defensive liability in the field. So far, he’s been anything but that.

After entertaining the idea of a six-man rotation, the Mets opted to send Corey Oswalt to the bullpen and keep Jason Vargas in a five-man rotation, as not to disrupt the rhythms of Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard in particular.

Daniel Zamora may be from California, but called Long Island home during his time at Stony Brook, which he credits for his success.

Marysol Castro speaks to the New York Times about the life as the public-address announcer for the New York Mets and making history as the first female PA announcer for the Mets and the first Latina PA announcer in Major League Baseball.

Around the National League East

Jose Urena received—and is appealing—a six game suspension for hitting Ronald Acuna Jr. with a pitch. David Lennon wonders, how can we be sure the act was purposeful?

Speaking of intentionally hitting batters, Reds’ manager Jim Riggleman believes that the August 4th hit by pitch from Ryan Madson to Joey Votto was purposeful. “It infuriates me that he’ll never have to go to the plate and be thrown at,” Riggleman said of Madson.

The Marlins snapped a six-game losing streak with an extra-inning win over the Nationals, who continue to endure late-inning, heartbreaking losses.

Cesar Hernandez and Maikel Franco are the only two Phillies intimately familiar with the dark days that preceded this somewhat unexpected success for the Phillies. Marly Rivera talks to them about how far the Phillies have come.

Around Major League Baseball

The Sports Illustrated staff gives their picks for the Cy Young Award, the MVP, and Rookie of the Year. Jon Tayler picked Jacob deGrom for the NL MVP, while two others picked Scherzer, and one vote went to the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado. As for the Cy Young, the four members of the roundtable were split—two for deGrom and two for Scherzer—despite the fact that Ben Reiter felt that “this one should be unanimous” for Scherzer.

Chris Sale is back on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Linda Surovich continued to profile Jacob deGrom’s quest for the Cy Young.

Kory Powell gave us the daily prospect report.

This Date in Mets History

Happy birthday to beloved ‘86 Met turned broadcaster, Ron Darling! Also on this day in 1957, the New York Giants officially became the San Francisco Giants.