Fittingly, Jacob deGrom’s final pitch Tuesday froze Dan Uggla for strike three to end the seventh inning.
DeGrom sprung from the mound, the finest pitching performance of his young major league career complete, and was allowed to watch comfortably as the Mets finished off a rare laugher. The rookie’s seven shutout innings helped the Mets cruise to a third straight victory and fourth in five games, 8-3 over the Braves at Citi Field.
DeGrom (2-5) matched a career high with 11 strikeouts. He joined Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden as the only pitchers in franchise history with at least two 11-strikeout games among their first 11 career appearances.
The right-hander was the losing pitcher at Turner Field last week, when he allowed three earned runs on six hits and two walks over five innings, and used that performance against Julio Teheran as motivation in Tuesday’s rematch.
“I wanted to go out and get the win because me and him matched up last time,” deGrom said. “I gave up three in the first inning [last time] and I wanted to go out and try to put up zeroes tonight.”
The Mets pounded out a season-high 18 hits against Teheran and the Braves bullpen in winning at Citi Field for the seventh time in 10 games. Over that stretch, the Mets have averaged 5.3 runs.
Maybe the best part of deGrom’s performance was the fact he did not walk a batter and was relatively efficient with his pitches until the Braves tested his patience in the sixth.
“He had very good stuff and he showed you he can pitch, he can certainly compete in this league,” manager Terry Collins said. “If he keeps going out there and using both sides of the plate and throwing his offspeed stuff for strikes, because of his competitiveness he’s going to be just fine.”
Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton each delivered a single with two outs in the sixth, running deGrom’s pitch count to 91, before Jason Heyward was retired on a diving grab by David Wright to conclude the inning.
In the seventh, a diving catch by Eric Young Jr. in left field robbed Tommy La Stella and helped ensure deGrom would leave without allowing a run.
“That fastball command he had, you could just attack hitters and he was able to do that,” catcher Travis d’Arnaud said.
Juan Lagares delivered an RBI single in the eighth that accounted for the Mets’ final run on a night every member of the starting lineup had at least one hit.
Lucas Duda, who reached base five times, smashed an RBI double in the sixth that put the Braves in a 6-0 hole. Daniel Murphy’s second double of the night started the rally with one out.
Young Jr.’s RBI single in the third extended the Mets’ lead to 5-0 after d’Arnaud and Ruben Tejada had singled in succession to begin the inning.
Murphy’s two-run double was the Mets’ big hit in a three-run second inning. DeGrom and Curtis Granderson each singled before Murphy hit a shot to the left-center gap that scored both runners. Wright’s ensuing RBI single gave the Mets a 4-0 lead.
Granderson homered leading off the game for the Mets. It was his third leadoff homer of the season and 27th of his career. The blast gave him 14 homers this season, one ahead of Duda for the team lead.
“It was nice to have run support, because you can go right after guys,” deGrom said. “We had a pretty big lead and you can really attack the hitters.”
The Mets (41-49) will be shooting for their first four-game winning streak of the season when they face the Braves on Wednesday.
“We talked the other day about trying to go into the [All-Star] break on a positive note,” Collins said. “Try to get ourselves back in this thing as close as we can.”