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New York Mets: Should Jacob deGrom have been pulled earlier in Game 2 of World Series?

By Nick Ziegler

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The New York Mets lost Game 2 in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals, as the Royals blitzed the Mets for seven runs in the game.

Also on Empire Writes Back: World Series Predictions.

Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom had a very rough outing, as the Royals were able to piece together a good chunk of their hits in the fifth inning to take a lead against one of the best pitchers in baseball.

The fifth inning performance by deGrom may end up being a turning point in the series, as despite struggling, he wasn’t pulled from the game.

In the fifth inning, deGrom walked the leadoff batter Alex Gordon to start the inning. A single by Alex Rios set the Royals up with two runners on with no outs. One of the heroes of Game 1 for the Royals, Alcides Escobar, hit an RBI single to score Gordon and tie the game at 1-1.

deGrom was then able to get Ben Zobrist to ground out to first base, and then Lorenzo Cain flew out to shallow center field, and the Royals didn’t challenge the arm of Lagares. Eric Hosmer came to the plate with runners on second and third with two outs and delivered a clutch two-run single.

The Royals weren’t done in the fifth inning after the Hosmer base-hit, as Kendrys Morales had a single, and then Mike Moustakas made it a 4-1 game with an RBI single of his own to score Hosmer. In the inning, deGrom allowed five singles and a walk, as it was somewhat surprising that Terry Collins never went to the bullpen with Niese warming up in the inning.

After the game, Collins explained why he stuck with his ace in the fifth inning despite deGrom clearly being hit hard by the Royals.

“This guy has been our ace, you have to stay with him,” the manager explained to Mike Vorkunov of NJ.com. “We’ve been sitting here raving the last two series that he’s gotten himself out of trouble and you’re sitting there saying we go to Niese now, with Bartolo (Colon) down, how long — I just thought it was time we could ride Jake and see if we could get him out of that inning and get him through one more and get better matchups.

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“But (Mike) Moustakas’s ground ball was perfectly placed and it was just one of those nights. Jake has gotten out of those situations a lot of times so far.”

“We gave Jake some extra rest and he came out and was looking good and all of a sudden balls were in the middle of the plate,” Collins said to Vorkunov. “And I don’t know why but we just aren’t making the pitches we need to make. And we can sit here and it’s easy to make excuses that, hey, it’s the workload, it’s the days off, and it’s the youth, on the big stage. I’m not going to say that. Look, Royals have a good team. We’ve got to make better pitches and we’ve got to play better.”

deGrom was outpitched by Johnny Cueto in Game 2, as Cueto was exceptional in his complete game, but the fifth inning was one where the damage could have possibly been limited by Collins if he elected to pull deGrom.

The Mets will be playing in a must-win game on Friday night in Citi Field, as Noah Syndergaard takes the mound for the Mets.

Next: Who is the best first baseman in franchise history?

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