Scherzer yielded two runs on two hits and three walks with 12 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. deGrom tossed six shutout innings, limiting the Nationals to five hits and a walk with 10 strikeouts. deGrom got the best of Scherzer as the Mets won 2-0. 2018 marked his third consecutive year finishing first or second in Cy Young balloting, and his sixth consecutive top-five finish.īoth starters delivered on Opening Day on Thursday in D.C. Scherzer, meanwhile, led baseball in innings pitched (220 2/3), strikeouts (300), complete games (two), and shutouts (one). The right-hander also recently inked a five-year, $137.5 million contract extension with the Mets. The performance netted him 29 of 30 first-place votes. The first one was Mets-Nationals, which featured 2018 National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom squaring off against NL Cy Young runner-up Max Scherzer.ĭeGrom only won 10 games last year, but paced baseball with a 1.70 ERA along with a 269/46 K/BB ratio across 217 innings. “Because he definitely deserves it.On Tuesday, I highlighted a few of the Opening Day starting pitching matchups that piqued my interest. “He’s fighting for one of the most prestigious awards there is and we want to get him over the top,” Todd Frazier told reporters Monday night. “Wish I could help a little more at the plate, but that’s not the case right now,” deGrom said.Īnother couple losses and he might have reinterpreted Paula Cole’s biggest hit into “Where Has All The Run Support Gone?” For now, though, the Mets are backing up deGrom, and giving him, with an assist from the Nationals, a chance at earning pitching’s highest honor. The Mets have scored 12 runs with deGrom on the mound in his last two starts after scoring just 28 runs for him in his previous 16 starts, during which he went 2-7 with a 1.77 ERA and began to sound like a put-upon spouse wondering what else he can do for an unappreciative partner.Īfter allowing two runs over eight innings but taking the loss against the Padres on July 23, deGrom lamented his poor batting average. Of course, this means the Mets have to actually keep scoring for deGrom so he can actually keep winning games. No starting pitcher has won the Cy Young with fewer than 13 victories. ![]() But Papelbon was allowed to return the next season, because at least he didn’t snitch or show up his manager.Īnyway, deGrom’s chances of winning the Cy Young will be enhanced if Scherzer falls short of 20 wins, either by his or his bullpen’s doing, while deGrom gets well into double digits in wins while maintaining his sub-2.00 ERA. ![]() The Nationals went 31-33 the rest of the way, lost the division to the Mets by seven games and played the final week of the season without Papelbon, who was suspended for trying to strangle MVP Bryce Harper. We should probably point out here that with the Nationals leading the NL East in July 2015, Rizzo acquired noted locker room poison Jonathan Papelbon to replace Drew Storen, who had 29 saves and a 1.73 ERA. The Nationals might have other options behind Madson, Glover and the injured Sean Doolittle and Kelvin Herrera, but they traded Brandon Kintzler because he might have been a locker room snitch and dealt Shawn Kelley because Rizzo was offended he threw his glove on the mound after giving up a three-run homer in a game the Nationals were winning by 24 runs. Koda Glover, the Nationals’ fourth-string closer, gave up a walk-off homer to Paul DeJong in the ninth inning of a 7-6 loss to the Cardinals Monday. ![]() And Scherzer, who also won the AL Cy Young while pitching for the Tigers in 2013, possesses the “Q” rating that can serve as a tiebreaker for some voters.īut the Nationals’ implosion over the last couple days has created a wider path for deGrom. Scherzer has a legitimate shot at 20 wins and/or 300 strikeouts, and those kinds of big numbers still wow voters, no matter how much wins have been devalued and strikeouts have become commonplace over the last few years. In other words, deGrom is still the underdog candidate who needs everything to break his way in order to win. While deGrom leads the world in ERA and hard-luck non-wins - he has pitched eight innings and failed to earn a win five times, only Corey Kluber has thrown eight innings in a start as many as five times this year - while pitching for the sub-.500 Mets, Scherzer leads the NL in wins, strikeouts (227), WHIP (0.88), fewest hits allowed per nine innings (5.8) and innings pitched (168 2/3) while producing a 2.19 ERA pitching for a team that is still on the fringes of playoff contention. By any measure, the only two pitchers with legitimate chances to earn the Cy Young are deGrom and Scherzer, the two-time defending Cy Young winner.
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