Even in fits and starts, deGrom a wonder

It is not just baseball where Jacob deGrom dominates the way he does, even when he is having trouble with right side soreness or flexor tendinitis or, now, a sore right shoulder. Right now, deGrom does what he does, throw fastballs and sliders past the world, better than what any other star athlete is doing in any other sport. His best is the best there is.

He did it again on Wednesday night at Citi Field, turned another of his starts into his sport’s main event, doing that at a time when Shohei Ohtani is this kind of once-every-hundred-years two-way talent for the Angels on the other side of the country, and hit his 19th home run the same day.

After throwing six one-hit innings last weekend against the Padres but leaving that game because of flexor tendinitis in the most valuable arm, left or right, on the planet, deGrom was even better against the Cubs on Wednesday night, throwing in the 100s again when he wasn’t throwing sliders that ought to be outlawed in most states, striking out eight of the nine hitters he faced and the last seven.

Then “it” happened to deGrom again, this time pain in his pitching shoulder, something from which he has not suffered in years. Ron Darling, working the game on SNY, thought he saw something right before the inning ended. He talked about “recoil” after one of deGrom’s pitches.

“It happened a few minutes ago,” Darling said before the camera caught deGrom walking straight for the runway once he got back to the dugout.

Just like that, in a blink, the magic and excitement were gone from Citi Field the way deGrom was, and the Mets and their fans and all of baseball waited to find out what had happened to deGrom this time. It turned out to be shoulder pain.

“It’s nothing,” deGrom would say.

Of course it is something. And maybe it’s everything for the Mets if this keeps happening, if he goes back to the injured list. Because of everything that has happened to deGrom so far this season, there is the season we get when he pitches, and there is the waiting and wondering between his starts if he is going to be back out there in five days.

You know the best stat of all by now, one even as good as his 0.54 ERA. deGrom, a former college shortstop, has knocked in more runs than he has allowed this season. He got his sixth RBI on Wednesday night, a sharp single to right field. The crowd at Citi Field got up while he was at the plate the way they get up when he has two strikes on another hitter and is about to put him away. They were already chanting “MVP” again by then. Because he is.

Even in the season of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ohtani and Vlad Guerrero Jr., it is deGrom who has been baseball’s most impressive star this season. It is deGrom who has done legendary things, with that ERA, with the way he so effortlessly seemed to be throwing 100, with 111 strikeouts in the 67 innings he has pitched so far. He has given up 26 hits in 11 starts.

Without question, his starts have become happenings. Only these injuries keep happening to him. And now we wait to see what happens with him between Wednesday night’s start and the one he is supposed to make next week. Put it this way: What deGrom does every time out is give you the kind of game that Kevin Durant gave the Nets against the Bucks in Brooklyn, N.Y., the night before deGrom did what he did to the Cubs. It really is like that with deGrom pretty much every time out. He Durants the other team.

Three perfect, dazzling innings for deGrom on Wednesday night. Then another imperfect, and troubling, ending to his night. It isn’t just the Mets and their fans who root for Jacob deGrom’s health right now. Everybody who loves baseball does. We have seen other greatness and other great streaks from other pitchers across baseball history. But never anything quite like these 11 starts from deGrom, that ERA.

He talked about being frustrated when it was over and wanting to stay out there as long as he can every time he gets the ball. He also said this:

"I think it's three separate issues. I think the lat was something to do with the swing. The elbow I didn't think too much of ... I was pretty confident that that was nothing. And I'm pretty confident that this is nothing. We did some tests and ruled out anything serious."

And that is the way all of us who love baseball are rooting today, that it isn’t serious, that he has simply had a bad run of luck. We saw everything Jacob deGrom has against the Cubs. Once more, after watching him pitch that way, we wait. Again.

Not wanting to fear the worst for the best pitcher on the planet.