Jacob deGrom Rises to Occasion for New York Mets in Game 2 of Wild Card Series

NEW YORK - Talk about rising to the occasion.

With the Mets staring down the barrel of elimination in the Wild Card round, Jacob deGrom stepped up on a night, in which he didn't have his best stuff.

DeGrom gave the Mets six innings of two-run ball in a 7-3 Game 2 victory over the San Diego Padres.

Overall, the two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out eight batters, allowed five hits, two walks and two runs.

After a 1-2-3 opening inning, where he picked up two punch outs, things got tougher for deGrom. In the top of the fifth, the Padres tied the game at 2-2 and had first and third with one out. But deGrom fought out of it to strikeout Josh Bell and Manny Machado to escape trouble and keep the score tied.

At 90 pitches, deGrom came back out for the sixth, with the Mets now leading thanks to a Pete Alonso home run, and endured his best inning since the first, retiring all three batters he faced on a total of nine pitches to conclude his night.

DeGrom, who is expected to opt out of his contract after the season, admitted that it crossed his mind on Saturday night that it could be his last start as a Met.

Jacob deGrom said the thought of tonight being his last start as a Met crept into his mind:

"The hope is we'd win a baseball game and continue to keep playing" pic.twitter.com/j2heQQhIwF
— SNY (@SNYtv) October 9, 2022

"I guess that went into my mind, but the hope is we'd win a baseball game and continue to keep playing," deGrom said.

On offense, the Mets' bats finally woke up. Alonso and Francisco Lindor both homered, while Jeff McNeil, Eduardo Escobar and Daniel Vogelbach led a four-run bottom of the seventh inning. That was all the Mets would need to secure a win.

With the series tied at 1-1, the Mets and Padres will battle it out on Sunday in a win-or-go home matchup for both teams. The winner will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers in the NLDS.

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