Jacob deGrom walked off the mound shaking his head after completing Thursday’s sixth inning. It was the only one all night in which the perfectionist didn’t post a zero on the scoreboard.
The team co-ace’s fifth start since returning from the injured list was just as encouraging as the first four for the first-place Mets, who began a stretch of 20 of 23 games played against sub-.500 teams with a 3-1 win over the Rockies at Citi Field.
“Jake was great for us,” Pete Alonso said after the Mets’ got back on track after two Subway Series losses earlier to the Yankees. “Jake was awesome for us, and it’s great to have him back.”
Working with two extra days of rest since his previous outing last Thursday, deGrom retired the first 12 batters he faced and departed with a 3-1 lead after six innings. The two-time Cy Young winner allowed one run on three hits with one walk and nine strikeouts over an 87-pitch effort, a handful shy of his season-high of 95 last week against the Braves.
Alonso belted a two-run homer in support of deGrom, who improved to 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA over five starts since returning from the injured list this month.
The Guy Report 