OAKLAND, Calif. — The Mets expected Jacob deGrom on Saturday but somehow got saddled with Jake from State Farm.
DeGrom’s afternoon at RingCentral Coliseum started badly and improved enough to get him through four innings, but that was about it.
Eliminate “and three runs or fewer from deGrom” as a phrase that could follow “death, taxes … ” With the two-time Cy Young award mortal, the Mets lost 10-4 to the hapless Athletics, providing oxygen to the Braves in the NL East race. Atlanta entered the day trailing the Mets by 2 ½ games after having lost three straight.
DeGrom allowed five earned runs on six hits and four walks over four innings to snap his MLB record streak of 40 straight starts in which he surrendered three earned runs or fewer, dating to 2019. The four walks matched his combined total in his previous nine starts this season.
The Mets didn’t receive much support from the bullpen, with Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez, Adam Ottavino and Trevor May combining to surrender five runs over the final four innings.
DeGrom only avoided a complete catastrophe in his start with help from a diving stab by Pete Alonso to snare Seth Brown’s line drive with runners on second and third to complete the fourth inning.
Alonso’s two-run homer in the first inning gave the Mets a 3-0 lead following Francisco Lindor’s sacrifice fly. Lindor’s RBI was his 100th this season, marking the first time in his career he has reached that plateau. Alonso’s ensuing homer was his 38th of the year and gave him 123 RBIs this season, one short of the club record shared by Mike Piazza and David Wright.
DeGrom loaded the bases in the first inning on a single and two walks before Dermis Garcia hit a drive to left field. Jeff McNeil got a late start on the ball, then fell to the ground as he tried to recover. Two runs scored on the double. Conner Capel’s RBI groundout extended Oakland’s lead before Shea Langeliers delivered an RBI double that put the Mets behind 4-3. DeGrom had never previously allowed four runs in the first inning of a start.
Mark Vientos’ first major league homer, a solo blast in the second inning, tied the score 4-4. A night earlier, Vientos delivered two hits and an RBI in a Mets victory.
Oakland regained the lead on Brown’s homer leading off the third against deGrom. It was the sixth homer allowed by the right-hander in his 10 starts this season.
Williams entered for the fifth and allowed a solo homer to Capel. Oakland extended that lead to 7-4 on Brown’s RBI single against Rodriguez in the sixth. Capel tripled against Ottavino to lead off the seventh — Darin Ruf tried for a diving catch in right on a bloop and booted the ball away from him — before Nick Allen’s RBI single extended the lead. May allowed two runs in the eighth after Ruf misplayed a drive by Brown to right into a double.
