It seems safe to say that Jacob deGrom is ready for the regular season to start.
The two-time Cy Young winner was simply ridiculous on Thursday night against the Houston Astros, pitching three perfect innings while striking out seven of the nine batters he faced, including five Astros in a row at one point.
And to top it all off, he was clocked at 101 mph on his fastball multiple times, seeming to hit 100 mph on just about every fastball he threw. MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo even had a scout tell him he clocked deGrom as high as 102 mph.
A night like this, with those kind of numbers and seemingly pinpoint command, would be impressive for the midway point of the season, let alone an early March spring training matchup.
After the game, deGrom said that the plan going in was to only throw fastballs and sliders, and especially after seeing how good his slider was in the bullpen before the game, the right-hander leaned on that pitch while also breaking triple digits with his fastball.
“I feel good. I feel like my delivery’s in line. I’ve constantly been working on that,” deGrom said. “I noticed whenever I threw one of my [live BP sessions] that my frontside was a little off, so I did some work in between to try to get that back in line. I tried to stay as smooth as I can, and it just seems to be coming out good. I feel like I’m staying within myself.
“We stuck fastball-slider. I threw one slider I didn’t really like and went right back to it and made the correction. So, I feel ready to go. I think I’ve got three more and I’ll continue to work on locating that offspeed and establishing the fastball.”