NEW YORK � One can only imagine what was going through Jacob deGrom's mind as he took the mound for the second inning.
The Mets' offense had supplied their pitching ace with four first-inning runs Thursday afternoon.
Usually, it takes them two weeks to do that for him.
Even in his Cy Young Award season of 2018, deGrom often toiled without much help from the guys with the bats in their hands.
Consider this: Prior to Thursday's 4-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in the rubber game of the series, deGrom had a 2.31 ERA since May 22. But the Mets were 3-8 in those games and deGrom himself was 2-2.
This time, everybody did their jobs � or at least the offense did for one inning. DeGrom, the best 6-7 pitcher in the game, was extra sharp, with a hard sinker and change-up to go with a fastball that topped out at 98 mph. In seven scoreless innings, matching what he did in his last start (a no-decision against the Giants), he allowed four hits, while striking out nine and walking one. He threw 105 pitches, 70 for strikes.
He retired 12 consecutive batters between a first-inning single by Manny Machado and a fifth-inning single by Francisco Mejia. With two hits each, Machado and Mejia were the only Padres to collect hits against deGrom.
The only threat by the Padres, who advanced only one runner to second against deGrom, came in the sixth inning. With runners on first and second and two outs, Eric Hosmer hit a slicing liner to left centerfield that leftfielder J.D. Davis, another Met playing out of position, almost over ran. The announced crowd of 37,822, and you can bet deGrom, exhaled when he made the catch.
Seth Lugo struck out two of the three hitters he faced in the eighth inning before Edwin Diaz had to leave the game after facing one batter in the ninth. Machado led off the inning with a hard-hit grounder off Diaz's left foot.
After Mets manager Mickey Callaway and the training staff conferred with their closer, Callaway brought in Luis Avilan to replace him.
Avilan struck out the first two batters he faced and, after a single by Franmil Reyes, he ended the game by inducing Mejia to fly out.
Padres soft thrower Eric Lauer got himself in trouble in the opening inning after issuing a one-out walk to Davis, who advanced to third on a single by Pete Alonso (just his fourth hit since the All-Star break) and scored on a sacrifice fly by Wilson Ramos.
The Mets weren't done. Following a single by Robinson Cano, Todd Frazier slashed a liner to left field, which Hunter Renfroe dove to make the catch, only to see the ball go under his glove. Alonso and Cano scored, and Frazier ended up on second with a two-run double. Michael Conforto's RBI single was the red ribbon on the four-run inning.
