J
acob deGrom was terrific, but to beat Madison Bumgarner who has never lost to the Mets, you need to be flawless. Luck helps too, and deGrom had none of it.
deGrom struck out 10 and allowed just one earned run in six innings so he keeps his Major League leading ERA intact, but he takes an unfortunate loss on his record which will surely hurt his Cy Young chances. The unearned run came courtesy of a passed ball by Devin Mesoraco and the second can easily be contributed to a missed strike call by the umpire in the fourth inning. With two outs, two strikes and a runner on, deGrom threw a fastball that looked like such an obvious strike three to everyone on the field, in the stands and watching on TV, that the whole team started walking toward the dugout. Only the home plate umpire Tony Randazzo blew the call and deGrom lost his nerve a bit, throwing three straight balls to issue a walk before allowing a run scoring double to Bumgarner. The episode not only cost deGrom a critical run, but also added to his pitch count and probably cost him an additional inning. Randazzo later blew another strike call where Wilmer Flores should have drawn a key walk.
As expected, the Mets couldn’t do much of anything against Bumgarner, who held them to one run over eight innings. The lone run came courtesy of a Todd Frazier solo home run. The Mets threatened with two runners on later, but Jeff McNeil’s line drive was shared by a leaping Joe Panik to end the rally.
With the Mets trailing 2-1 entering the 8th, Tyler Bashlor allowed an insurance run on a home run to Evan Longoria to bring the score to 3-1. The Mets went down in order in the ninth against reliever Will Smith.
deGrom and his impressive 1.71 ERA now stands at 8-8 whole Bumgarner moves to 7-0 lifetime against the Mets. So, the Mets settle for a series split with the Giants and will now welcome the Nationals to Citi Field for a three-game series without Daniel Murphy, who is now strangely a Cub.
It was weird to see Wilmer bark at the umpire in the 9th inning. I have no doubt that if that call went against Asdrubal Cabrera that he wouldn’t have stopped barking until the umpire threw him out.
The only surprise about today’s game is that Callaway’s line up out of a hat put up a run. Can MLB have a Cy Young winner with a losing record?
Isn’t it something that I’m this age of fire ballers, Bumgarner is so unhittbale with a 91mph fastball? I think he benefits from a bit of the hidden ball trick like our old friend Sid Fernandez, where his unorthodox delivery and large build hides his pitching arm until closer to the release, making it harder to time and seem faster than it is. He’s a special pitcher and a darn good hitter too.
Once again more blown calls from the home plate umpire. It doesn’t matter who it is, they **all** blow several calls **every** game. The absolutely pathetic call in the fourth against deGrom was only one of several obvious balls or strikes missed yesterday at the plate. There were lots of them.
If the idea of instant replay is to “get it right,” I simply can’t understand why MLB lets these most egregiously incorrect calls continue to occur day after day, game after game. The number one priority for MLB should be to develop an accurate, foolproof electronic strike zone.