NEW YORK _ Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom has been one of the unstoppable forces in baseball, tearing through batting orders, then bringing home the hardware.
With a 97 mph fastball, devastating 92 mph slider and supreme craftsmanship, deGrom was a runaway Cy Young winner in the National League last season despite winning only 10 games. And he came into Tuesday's start on the cusp of setting not just one, but two records.
The Twins were waiting for deGrom, instead of the other way around.
Starting with a Mitch Garver home run in the second inning, the Twins landed enough blows on deGrom to knock him out of the game after four shaky innings. Starter Kyle Gibson was knocked out in the fifth but the bullpen bailed him out and the offense poured it on late to produce a 14-8 victory over the Mets.
When Garver pounded a slider to center for his home run, it ended deGrom's scoreless innings streak at 27 innings, 5?2/3 innings shy of the club record set by R.A. Dickey in 2012. DeGrom has to settle for being tied with Pat Zachary for eighth. It was a bad sign for the Mets ace, as his slider wasn't missing bats like it normally does.
The Twins weren't done with deGrom, scoring four more runs in the third to take a 5-1 lead, including a two-run home run by Eddie Rosario as well as Garver's second homer of the night. That ended any chance of deGrom getting a quality start _ lasting at least six innings, giving up no more than three earned runs.
After the Mets scored twice in the third to get within 5-3, deGrom went out for the fourth and gave up a leadoff double to Byron Buxton. Gibson bunted Buxton to third, then Max Kepler lined a single through a drawn-in infield to give the Twins a 6-3 lead _ and their final lick in on deGrom.
DeGrom entered Tuesday tied with Bob Gibson for the major league record with 26 consecutive quality starts. Gibson achieved his during the 1967-68 seasons, so this is not any accomplishment.
In one night, the Twins stopped the stopper. Twice. In four innings, deGrom gave up six earned runs on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts. He gave up three home runs _ after giving up 10 in 217 innings all of last season. He lost the game, as well as a chance to set two records.
And deGrom had not given up six earned runs in a game since Sept. 5, 2017.
It was then a matter of how long Gibson would last. Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto hit solo homers off of him in the third, as he showed signs of not being all the way back after his offseason bout with E.coli. Gibson recovered to throw a nine-pitch fourth inning, and Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent him back out of the fifth inning.
Gibson gave up a leadoff double to Nimmo before getting two quick outs. For the second straight outing he was one pitch from getting through five innings, but walked Conforto and J.D. Davis to load the bases. Baldelli had no choice but to bring in Trevor Hildenberger, who got Jeff McNeil to line out to end the inning.
The Twins offense didn't stop after deGrom left the game. Jonathan Schoop hit his first homer as a Twin in the sixth to give them a 7-3 lead, and Polanco's two-run homer came as part of a three-run eighth that pushed the lead to 10-4.
