Winners of five consecutive games, the Mets have a big test brewing: Jacob deGrom is getting an magnetic resonance imaging exam.
deGrom, the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, was pulled from his start Sunday after five innings with right side tightness in his return from an injury to a similar area. The bullpen closed out a four-hitter after his departure as the Mets (I6-13) beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-2, at Citi Field.
DeGrom (3-2) was perfect through four innings but labored in the fifth. He called for the trainer, Brian Chicklo, after throwing two warm-up pitches ahead of the sixth inning and exited the game.
“No pain whatsoever, just tightness,” Manager Luis Rojas said. “That’s what he told our trainer.”
DeGrom was coming off a 10-day layoff, skipping his previous turn in the rotation because of an issue with a latissimus muscle on his right side. Rojas said the side tightness — centered around the lower-right side of deGrom’s back — seems to be a different issue.
Entering Sunday, deGrom had a 0.51 earned run average and 59 strikeouts in 35 innings.
The Mets expected to have the results of the M.R.I. by Sunday night.
“I want to sit and wait and see what it is, and then we can plan as a group what’s next,” Rojas said.
DeGrom threw 68 pitches over five innings, allowing a run with six strikeouts, a hit and three walks.
All three walks came during a 29-pitch fifth inning, just the second time in his career he’d issued three in the same frame.
Right-hander Miguel Castro relieved deGrom with the Mets ahead 2-1 over Arizona (15-19). He hit a batter and walked another before completing a scoreless inning. Jacob Barnes worked a perfect seventh before allowing Asdrúbal Cabrera’s solo homer in the eighth, and Edwin Díaz got five outs for his fifth save.
Michael Conforto had two hits, an R.B.I. and a superb catch against the right-field wall.
The Mets matched their longest winning streak since August 2019. They also beat the Diamondbacks for the 10th straight time at Citi Field.
Arizona has lost six games in a row and totaled just eight runs during this three-game sweep in Queens. The rookie right-hander Riley Smith (1-2) allowed two runs, four hits and a walk in four innings, striking out one.
DeGrom’s rocky fifth began with a free pass to David Peralta, and Stephen Vogt followed with a long double.
DeGrom walked Eduardo Escobar to load the bases with no outs and fell behind Nick Ahmed before inducing a double play that cut the Mets’ lead to 2-1. He walked Daulton Varsho, then struck out pinch-hitter Christian Walker.
The Mets do-it-all ace also helped build the lead. DeGrom placed a perfect bunt single down the third-base line during a two-run third inning. DeGrom scored on Conforto’s two-out single, and Francisco Lindor also lofted an R.B.I. sacrifice fly in the inning.
The Mets got their third run on pinch-hitter Patrick Mazeika’s bases-loaded walk against J.B. Bukauskas as light rain began in the sixth. Dominic Smith added an R.B.I. single in the seventh.
The Yankees Walk-Off Again
Giancarlo Stanton lined a slider into left field, sending the Yankees streaming of the dugout for the second straight day.
After consecutive walk-off wins over the Washington Nationals, the Yankees felt ready for a trip to Tampa Bay, their biggest rival in recent years.
“It hasn’t been in our favor against them lately,” Stanton said after his ninth-inning single off Brad Hand gave the Yankees a 3-2 win Sunday. “We need to change that.”
The Yankees (18-16) completed their longest homestand this season with a 7-2 record. The 2020 American League champion Rays have won 18 of the last 23 meetings against the Yankees, including a five-game victory in last year’s Division Series, going into Tuesday’s series opener.
A three-game sweep by the Rays in the Bronx from April 16-18 dropped the Yankees to a season-worst 5-10 record.
“Last year during the regular season, they beat us up,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said. “They’re obviously very good at preventing runs. They’ve got versatility in their lineup. So they’re a challenge, and you’ve got to play well if you’re going to beat them.”
Hand (2-1) entered in relief in the ninth with the score tied at 2-2, a day after he wasted ninth- and 10th-inning leads in the Yankees’ 4-3, 11-inning victory, a game Gleyber Torres won with a 50-foot, bases-loaded single.
Hand walked Tyler Wade on four pitches, putting his first batter aboard for the second straight day and then walked pinch-hitter Aaron Judge on a full count.
D.J. LeMahieu grounded to Starlin Castro, who Castro threw to second for a possible double play. LeMahieu beat second baseman Josh Harrison’s throw for first, leaving runners at the corners.
Stanton fell behind 1-2, took a slider in the dirt, then lined a high slider for the Yankees’ fifth hit of the game and his 24th R.B.I. this season. Stanton has seven career walk-off hits, including two for the Yankees.
The Yankees built a 2-0 lead on Aaron Hicks’s R.B.I. single in the third and Torres’ solo homer in the sixth, a 411-foot drive into the left-field bleachers. Torre had not homered in 136 plate appearances this season, and had not gone deep since Sept. 17, 2020, against Toronto.
“I’m just so happy to hit one for my mom,” said Torres, who recalled hitting three minor league homers on Mother’s Day. “Before I left the house, I told her, `I’ll do something for you.’”
Kyle Schwarber tied the score in the seventh with a two-run homer into the right-field second deck on Domingo Germán’s final pitch. Josh Bell had doubled to lead off the inning, ending a string of strikeouts in seven straight at-bats.
Germán allowed five hits and one walk in 6 ⅓ innings. Washington starter Joe Ross gave up three hits and five walks in five-plus innings.
Wainwright throws a gem against Colorado
Nolan Arenado homered against his former team, Adam Wainwright pitched into the ninth inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-0, on Sunday.
Catcher Yadier Molina hit an R.B.I. double and reliever Ryan Helsley got Josh Fuentes to ground into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded. St. Louis completed a three-game sweep and has won nine of its last 11 games.
Colorado (12-22) dropped to a major league-worst 2-14 on the road.
St. Louis (21-14) acquired the star third baseman Arenado from the Rockies in a blockbuster trade in early February after he spent the first eight years of his career with Colorado.
He said it felt strange playing against his former teammates during the weekend series.
“It was definitely weird,” said Arenado, who has reached safely in 18 of the last 20 games. “Obviously, I know a lot of those guys. At the end of the day, it was a great series to win.”
Wainwright (2-3) struck out five and walked three over 8 ⅓ innings, improving to 11-1 against the Rockies. He retired nine batters in a row at one point and eight straight during another stretch.
Wainwright, a 39-year-old right-hander, fell two outs short of his 11th career shutout. His last one came in 2016. “I can’t even tell you how much younger I feel than when I was 36, 37. It’s just not even close,” Wainwright said. “I have a great time outperforming expectations.”
Molina and Wainwright have made 279 starts together as a battery, which ranks them sixth on the career list.
“This guy amazes me every time he takes the mound,” Molina said.
Arenado homered leading off the second against German Marquez (1-4), who allowed two runs, one earned, in six innings. Marquez struck out six and walked three. Molina added a run-scoring double in the fourth.