by Brian Joura
It’s frustrating to score five runs in a Jacob deGrom start, where he only allows two runs, and not win. There’s plenty of blame to go around and no one can look themselves in the mirror and say they are without fault. In a game that not only could have, but should have been won, the offense, defense and strategic moves all came up short.Let’s start with deGrom. He gave up a double in the first inning but retired the other six batters he faced and seemed like he was in control of the game. In the first two innings he threw 26 pitches and only one of those was a changeup. And then in the third inning, 12 of his 17 pitches were changeups. He retired the first batter of the fourth inning on three fastballs. But he threw five more changeups to the next two batters and both players hit doubles off changeups before deGrom stopped forcing the pitch.
In 2019, deGrom threw a changeup 16% of the time, according to Pitch Type classification at FanGraphs. So why on earth, on a night when he hit 100 mph multiple times, would he throw his changeup 17 times in 29 pitches? A veteran with the resume of deGrom doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt on who’s calling the pitches.
After the second double of the fourth inning, deGrom threw 15 more pitches and only one was a changeup. In his final two frames, deGrom featured the changeup six times in 18 pitches, an elevated total compared to 2019 but nowhere near the extent of the third and early fourth innings.
The fourth inning was a self-inflicted high-stress inning for deGrom. But he cruised through the fifth and sixth innings. His pitch count sat at 88 pitches and after the back flareup in summer camp, Luis Rojas decided to go to the bullpen. But if you’re going to treat deGrom with kid gloves in the usage department, you can’t turn around and abuse the relievers. We’ve seen this particular abusive move from Terry Collins and Mickey Callaway and it never ends up good.
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