PHOENIX — Jacob deGrom took a perfect game into the fifth inning. Pete Alonso mashed a missile his first day back from the injured list. Kevin Pillar collected a single in his first at-bat since getting hit in the face. For what felt like the first time in forever, the Mets got their reinforcements back and looked like the complete team for which we were all waiting.
DeGrom lowered his ERA to 0.71 following six scoreless innings in the Mets’ 6-2 win over the Diamondbacks on Monday night. He recorded eight strikeouts — one of them on a fastball that flashed 102 mph on the Chase Field radar gun — and retired the first 13 batters.
The Mets (26-20) won their fifth straight game to wrap up the month with 17 wins in May. New York will enter June in first place in the National League East, a position the club has held for 23 consecutive days. It’s the Mets’ longest streak in first place since the end of the 2015 season.
Though deGrom flirted with a no-no against a Diamondbacks team that has lost 17 of their last 19 games, and it seemed like the night to do it, the feat eluded him once again. He gave up his first hit to Carson Kelly in the sixth, and only surrendered two hits throughout his outing.
The Mets continued their trend of being cautious with the best pitcher in baseball since his repeated bouts with side tightness earlier this month. Luis Rojas pulled deGrom on 70 pitches, never mind that he was on cruise control. The short leash led to the manager using most of his best relievers in a game where the Mets, at one point, had a five-run lead.
Four of those runs were credited to Alonso as the first baseman made the most of his first day back from the IL with a two-run home run and a two-run single. All four of his RBI came off Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly, with his dinger forcing the right-hander out of the game in the seventh. Alonso’s seventh homer of the year traveled 442 feet to left field, and it was immediately apparent how much the Mets missed his bat in the lineup.
DeGrom is in no rush to see the designated hitter in the National League. As fans have come to expect from their ace this season, deGrom collected his ninth hit of the year in the fourth inning to give himself some run support. Arizona intentionally walked the No. 8 hitter in Mason Williams to face deGrom, who without delay punished that silly decision and recorded his seventh RBI of the season on a single to right field.
