NEW YORK — Two-time National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom is expected to make his next scheduled start for the New York Mets despite having to leave Friday’s game after six innings with flexor tendinitis.
DeGrom played catch and threw a bullpen session Saturday afternoon. Manager Luis Rojas said his ace should be ready to face the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.
A precautionary MRI showed no problem, Rojas said.
“It’s something that we want to take day by day, so today it’s just play catch,” Rojas said. “He said he felt fine, so we’ll see the progression in between starts and see that he can do everything, throw his side and make his next start. That’s the expectation right now, but we still want to pay close attention to it.”
DeGrom was pulled after 80 pitches and six scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres Friday night. He was not concerned the diagnosis will disrupt a season in which he has dominated opponents.
The elbow began to tighten up in the sixth inning Friday, said deGrom (6-2), who extended his streak of scoreless innings to 22.
“Whenever you say elbow anything for a pitcher, everyone gets nervous about that,” deGrom said Friday. “But like I said, I do a lot of ligament tests on my own, and doing those, knowing what those feel like, it’s a totally different spot.”
DeGrom had a no-hitter until Wil Myers beat the shift with a weak grounder in the fifth. Myers was caught stealing and was the only runner to reach base on deGrom, who struck out 10.
DeGrom’s 0.56 ERA is the lowest ever by a pitcher through 10 starts, just ahead of Juan Marichal’s 0.59 in 1966.
He has thrown 128 of his 839 pitches this season 100 mph or harder. He topped that mark seven times Friday. No other starter had more than 10 such pitches before Friday. Rojas said pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and the performance team constantly monitor the stress on deGrom’s arm.
DeGrom got his 100th strikeout this year when Fernando Tatis Jr. went down swinging in the fourth, reaching the mark in 61⅔ innings. It is the fewest innings needed to reach 100 punchouts in a season since the mound was moved to 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893, per ESPN.