Jacob deGrom’s first start against the Mets at Citi Field was unlike anything he experienced during his nine seasons in Flushing.
His team provided him with six runs of support in the first inning alone.
The two-time NL Cy Young winner was staked to a quick 6-0 lead Friday against rookie Jonah Tong, and the Rangers cruised to an 8-3 victory while sending the skidding Mets to their seventh straight defeat.
“It means a lot. The fans were great to me when I was here and they were great to me tonight. I always enjoyed taking the mound in front of this crowd,” deGrom said. “Tonight was just as special.
“I knew it was late in the year when I saw our schedule. But I wanted a chance to pitch here.”
The Mets scored all three of their runs against deGrom in the third, but he retired the final 15 batters he faced through the seventh (88 pitches) to improve to 12-7 on the year.
The five-time All-Star signed a five-year deal worth $185 million with Texas after the 2022 season, but he only appeared in nine games over the first two years of the contract due to his second career Tommy John surgery.
The 37-year-old deGrom ranks fourth in the American League with a 2.82 ERA, and this marked his 28th start of the year, his most since making 32 for the Mets in 2019, due to various injuries.
“You find out you’re going to miss some significant time. At my age at the time, there is some unknown,” deGrom said. “When it first happens you’re pretty down.
“But once it happens there’s only one thing you can do. Take each day and do what I can to get back to a major league mound … and compete at the level I wanted to compete at.”
As he loosened in the outfield before the game, the stadium sound system blared deGrom’s customary warmup song, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man,” during a video tribute on the scoreboard. He looked up, smiled and tipped his cap to the Flushing crowd.
“That was really cool. This is where it all started, and coming back here, I thought it was going to be a very special day,” deGrom said. “Thankful to the Mets for playing that. I knew if something was played, I’d probably feel some sort of emotion.
“I spent nine years here and everybody here was good to me, the fans and the organization. … But once [the game] started, it was ‘Here we go’ and I tried to get some outs.”
Before deGrom even threw a pitch, the Mets had knocked out Tong with six runs before he could record three outs. The Mets scored six or more runs with deGrom pitching only 29 times over his 209 regular-season starts for them, and at least six in one inning only four times.
The Rangers righty needed just six pitches to complete a 1-2-3 first and nine more in the second to maintain the 6-0 lead.
The Mets reached deGrom for three runs in the third to halve that cushion on a solo homer by Francisco Alvarez and sacrifice flies by Juan Soto and Pete Alonso.
But deGrom regrouped and posted four consecutive 1-2-3 frames starting with the fourth, which featured an ejection of Jeff McNeil following a called third strike.
In all, deGrom retired the last 15 batters he faced — beginning with the two sac flies — before turning over an 8-3 lead to the bullpen in the eighth.
“Why not? Try to keep it going,” deGrom replied when asked if he believes he can pitch into his 40s. “I enjoy playing this game. I think when you miss significant time later in your career you realize how much you miss it.”
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