NEW YORK — Jacob deGrom hit 10 in six dominant innings and Edwin Diaz made his 200th save of his career and helped the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 on Saturday night.
DeGrom (2-0, 1.62 ERA) allowed two hits and didn’t walk in his third start after spending the first part of the season on the injury list. So far this year in 16⅔ innings he has hit six, struck 28 and given one walk.
“You don’t really know what to expect when you come back, but last time I was able to look at a few things that I felt like mechanically getting off and try to make those adjustments while doing a pretty slow one process to come back,” deGrom said. “It seems to have paid off a bit.”
| 100km/h | begins | |
|---|---|---|
| Hunter Greene | 238 | 20 |
| Spencer Strider | 34 | 13 |
| Shhei Ohtani | 32 | 19 |
| Jacob de Grom | 30 | 3 |
| Sandy Alcantara | 30 | 23 |
The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner opened the game by beating Bryson Stott with a 101.1 mph fastball and then allowing Rhys Hoskins a soft single. After Alec Bohm was grounded into a power play, deGrom JT Realmuto fanned out to three straight sliders.
DeGrom has batted 28 of the 56 batters he faced this season. That 50% strikeout percentage is the highest of any pitcher on his first three starts of a season since the mound moved to its current distance in 1893, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. DeGrom held the previous high, beating 48.6% of batters who started last season.
“He’s doing great,” said Diaz. “He can do whatever he wants with the racquets.”
The win put deGrom up 9-1 against the Phillies in 20 career starts.
Pete Alonso notched an early RBI singles as the NL East leaders improved to 31-9 after a loss and 10-4 in the season series against Philadelphia. Alonso leads the NL with 97 RBIs.
Diaz gave up two walks in the ninth, and Philadelphia had runners in second and third when Nick Castellanos swung to the final. It was Diaz’s 27th save of the season.
The All-Star Closer became the sixth active pitcher to make 200 saves.
“It’s great,” said deGrom. “He’s done a great job and you always feel comfortable when he’s in the game.”
The Mets posted their MLB-best 15th shutout. It was their first 1-0 win over Philadelphia since RA Dickey threw a one-hitter at Citi Field exactly 12 years ago.
“The star of the show was our pitching team,” Alonso said.
Philadelphia wasted a terrific performance from Aaron Nola (8-9), who conceded four hits in eight innings. The right-hander hit eight and walked one, but he fell to 3-0 in four starts against New York this year.
The Phillies ended with three hits.
New York jumped forward in the first. Starling Marte scored, stealing second and finishing third through a Realmuto throwing error before scoring on Alonso’s soft single right.
After Alonso’s hit, Luis Guillorme and Jeff McNeill had consecutive one-out singles in the second. Nola was eliminated 17 straight before McNeil started the eighth with a walk.
“If you face deGrom, you know it’s going to be low [scoring]’ said Nola. “So it’s going to be just a fight all night. And that was it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.