deGrom ‘poured his heart out there for us’

NEW YORK — Jacob deGrom knew what was at stake for the Mets on Saturday night at Citi Field. If they lost to the Padres in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series, the Mets would be eliminated from postseason play and go home.

But deGrom gave New York life, playing the stopper role for this team. He helped the Mets avoid elimination with a 7-3 victory over San Diego. deGrom grinded through six innings, allowed two runs and struck out eight batters.

Before the game, he wondered about his future with the Mets — deGrom can opt out of his contract before the 2023 season. First, he had to keep the Mets alive in the postseason.

“Like I said yesterday,” deGrom said, “the goal was to put us in a position to win or give us a chance and pass it on to Chris Bassitt [the Game 3 starter for the Mets].”

deGrom did a great job of ensuring that the Mets play on Sunday. He was dominant at first, retiring the first seven hitters he faced. But Trent Grisham hit a solo home run in the third inning to tie the game, 1-1. deGrom found himself in trouble that same inning. San Diego had runners on first and second with two outs, but Manny Machado struck out to end the threat.

In the fifth, the Padres scored a second run off deGrom on Jurickson Profar’s RBI single. Then the Padres had runners on first and second with one out in the same inning, but deGrom managed to strike out Machado and Josh Bell to end the inning.  

“[I was] trying to make pitches when I needed to. That’s what I was able to do tonight,” deGrom said. “I’ve got to tip my hat to Trent. That homer, I felt like that was a good pitch, and he just got to it. After that — then I ended up walking him. But in spots with runners in scoring position, the main focus was one pitch at a time, to make the pitch I needed to make.”

deGrom was successful on Saturday because he was able to make mechanical adjustments. In his last four starts of the regular season, deGrom allowed 14 runs in 21 innings.  

“I felt like in Atlanta and Oakland I was leaning a little bit and not balanced [like] I wanted to be,” he said. “So I was trying to get that out of my head and be like, ‘Hey, you have to throw this pitch where you need to. You know, try to eliminate every other thought and execute in the moment.’”

Padres manager Bob Melvin said his club made deGrom work, but took notice that deGrom was changing his repertoire during the game.  

“He came out throwing 102 [mph], so obviously he had a good fastball early on,” Melvin said. “But what really made him effective later on, he kind of changed what he was doing and started leaning on his slider a lot more and kept us off-balanced that way.”

deGrom became eligible for the win in the bottom of the fifth, when Pete Alonso hit a solo home run to make it a 3-2 game. The Mets came out like gangbusters two innings later and scored four runs off reliever Adrian Morejon.

“We had contributions from everyone up and down the lineup,” Alonso said. “Then Jake, I mean, he set the tone right from the start. He poured his heart out there for us.” 

deGrom’s previous elimination victory was in the 2015 NL Division Series against the Dodgers. He says he considers Saturday’s elimination game one of his biggest moments because it was done at Citi Field.  

“[I] love pitching here,” he said. “Mets fans have been great to me. Didn’t want to disappoint. So I wanted to go out there and give us a chance, and we were able to win a game.”