Pray For Rain

I'd mentioned yesterday that the Mets games had become totally formulaic. At least for this week this was not the case when Jacob deGrom pitched. On the heels of a masterful Complete Game against the Cubs, deGrom again pitched sterling baseball for 8 innings against the Nationals, allowing the Mets to win, 5-1 and salvage at least one game out of this debacle of a series.

deGrom did not complete the game this time out, although he certainly seemed like he could have, but we'll forgive him as he made up for this shortfall by hitting his first Major League Home Run in the 3rd inning. This, then, is usually a winning proposition for the Mets, as Gary Cohen mentioned at some point during the game that the Mets hadn't lost when their pitcher has hit a Home Run in 21 years. I gave it some thought and came up with a number of times I'd seen a Mets pitcher hit a Home Run, and I could name among them Armando Reynoso, Mark Clark, Johan Santana and Jeremy Hefner, and the Mets did not lose any of those games. So deGrom going deep definitely bode well for the remainder of the afternoon.

Fortunately, deGrom's pitching was just as good as his bat on this day as he allowed an unearned run in the 1st inning and basically cruised the rest of the way, something most Mets pitchers have not been able to do. But his Home Run merely tied the game and he did need some support from the rest of the team in order to get the win, and he got that, as Michael Conforto had what I'd hope are a couple of slump-snapping RBI hits and T.J. Rivera had 4 hits of his own.

In the grand scheme of things, I know this really doesn't make up for the three games that the Mets vomited up prior to this, but at least the Mets can go on the road with a good taste in their mouth. This may not help since the Mets are playing The Hot Dodgers. Maybe we should just pray for four days of rain and just play the games when deGrom is scheduled to pitch. Since, you know, 4 days of rain in Southern California is a totally realistic wish.