The Red Sox face a tough challenge against Mets ace Jacob deGrom
The Boston Red Sox have been able to beat a plethora of good starting pitchers this season, but they’ll have their toughest test yet versus the one of the best in baseball.
The Red Sox are heading towards the month of May as one of the bigger surprises in baseball, sitting atop the American League East with a record of 15-9 entering play on Wednesday night.
They toppled the Mets last night 2-1 on behalf of Garrett Richards, who turned in by far his best performance since dawning a Red Sox uniform. Boston has been the beneficiary of strong play all the way around thus far, and they’ve beaten a string of baseball’s best arms, showcasing the league’s top offense in terms of team average (.272).
However tonight they’re in for their toughest test yet as they’ll go up against NL Cy Young favorite Jacob deGrom. Considered by many to be the best pitcher in the game, deGrom has simply been on another level this season. Just how good has he been? Well…
Jacob deGrom has more RBI this season (2) than earned runs allowed (1).
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 24, 2021
Like it's Little League. pic.twitter.com/zGXKX1kIUJ
Yeah. That good. On top of all that? He’s tallied a whopping fifty strikeouts (T-2nd in MLB) through just 29 innings, not to mention his minuscule 0.31 ERA (No. 1 in MLB). Boston hasn’t faced anyone that dominant in quite some time. Although they’ve been able to knock off names like Ryu, Glasnow, Giolito, Maeda, and Berrios, that tweet above tells you all you need to know about the Mets starter tonight. Just silly good.
By the way, not for nothing, but all five of those starters Boston has previously beaten this year were in the top eight Cy Young contenders before the season started according to various oddsmakers in Vegas.
Of course, the favorite now is Jacob deGrom.
Alex Cora hands the ball to Nick Pivetta who’s in search of his third win this year and coming off a strong start against Seattle last Thursday he’ll look to continue building momentum.
Boston puts out a lineup that shapes up like this:
Hernandez CF, Verdugo RF, Martinez LF, Bogaerts SS, Devers 3B, Vazquez C, Gonzalez 2B, Dalbec 1B, Pivetta P
A couple of things to note, out of all the members of the Red Sox lineup tonight, only a handful of them have found any form of success against deGrom in their career. J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers each have two hits each off of the Mets ace, while Christian Vazquez and Franchy Cordero each collected one.
The lone member of the Red Sox who has at least three hits against the former Cy Young winner? Hunter Renfroe (3-for-9, 2 HR) who finds himself out of the lineup tonight.
First pitch from Citi Field is at 6:40 p.m. ET. Watch on NESN or listen on WEEI-FM.