Jacob deGrom might be the best pitcher in Major League Baseball. Entering Saturday night's game against the Padres he'd made eight starts and at no point has his ERA been over 0.80.
He'd only allowed four runs and three of those came on solo home runs. The Padres fared no better than anyone else in a 4-0 loss to the 2-time Cy Young Award winner, snapping their franchise record 12 game winning streak at Petco Park.
Against deGrom you have to take advantage of every little opportunity. In the 4th inning Jake Cronenworth singled with one out. He took off for 2nd and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a grounder to shortstop. Francisco Lindor had to rush to get the ball off and dropped it, putting runners at 1st and 2nd.
Eric Hosmer hit a shallow fly to left field. Dominic Smith charged and made a sliding attempt but the ball short-hopped him and kicked away. It would have been enough room for Cronenworth to score but he thought Smith made the catch, got a late break and had to stop at 3rd base.
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With the bases loaded deGrom did what he usually does, striking out Wil Myers and Tucupita Marcano to get out of the jam. That was really the only threat they ever mounted against deGrom, who went 7.0 innings, allowing three hits and striking out 11.
Musgrove matched deGrom for four shutout innings (nine of the first 13 outs he recorded were by strikeout). In the 5th, he made a couple of mistakes and got hurt. Musgrove hung sliders to Jose Peraza and Francisco Lindor, who both hit solo home runs to give New York a 2-0 lead.
Musgrove finished with 10 strikeouts and allowed three runs but took the loss. The Padres can win the series on Sunday afternoon when Chris Paddack starts against Marcus Stroman.
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