Tony Plate - DeGrom a Favorite for NL CY Young Award

On this past Tuesday Jacob deGrom broke a Major League Baseball record of not allowing three runs or fewer accomplishing the feat at 26 starts in a row. He was in a tie with former Chicago Cub Leslie “King” Cole who set the record with 25 starts in a row without allowing three runs or fewer back in 1910. This feat has made deGrom (8-9) a favorite for the National League Cy Young Award. He took the loss and allowed two runs over seven innings in the Mets 5-3 loss to the Miami Marlins. He gave up three hits, two walks and struck out nine.

The Marlins scored their two runs against deGrom when Brian Anderson hit an infield single in the fourth inning. Derek Dietrich then hit a single to left-field. Lewis Brinson then hit a two-run double off the center-field wall to give the Marlins a 2-0 lead. deGrom has not received that much run support from the offense throughout the season. He did not allow that fact to get to him as he has shown the ability to focus and pitch tremendously constantly.

On Sunday deGrom faced Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox in an excellent pitching matchup of two of the best pitchers in baseball. deGrom allowed three runs in seven innings and struck out 12 with fastballs and sliders in a 4-3 loss to Boston. deGrom struck out five of the first six batters he faced. He settled for a no decision after the Mets came back against Boston’s bullpen. Sale is recovering from a shoulder problem so the plan for him was to pitch only a few innings. He went three scoreless innings and gave up one hit facing the minimum. The Red Sox scored three runs in the third including a home run by Brock Holt. The Mets came back in the sixth by scoring two runs and tied the game in the seventh inning on Amed Rosario’s RBI single off Joe Kelly. In the eighth Andrew Benitendi hit a game-winning sacrifice fly off Seth Lugo.

DeGrom currently owns a 1.78 ERA which is the best in the National League and in my opinion that statistic is the reason he is the favorite to win the Cy Young Award. He has proven that he can beat the elite teams with superb performances. deGrom’s two competitors for the National League Cy Young Award are Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies and Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals. They both are having tremendous seasons too and they both have more wins than deGrom. So, it will be very interesting to see what happens with each pitcher having approx. two starts each left with two weeks to go in the regular season.