Mets ace deGrom recovers from back tightness, in line for second consecutive opening-day nod
NEW YORK — It didn’t take long for Jacob deGrom to get past his sudden, minor back tightness. Though the ailment was close enough to the regular season that it scared fans into thinking he may not be ready for opening day, the Mets ace anticipates being on the mound with his usual grit against the Braves on Friday.
“I would say it’s totally in the past,” deGrom said of his back tightness. “The other day it felt really good. Throwing on the mound again today, I think I threw 13 fastballs. Then again on the mound tomorrow. So everything is in line. As long as tomorrow goes well, I should be in line for hopefully opening day.”
DeGrom exited his outing in the first inning of the Mets’ intrasquad game last Tuesday. He flagged the back tightness to the team’s medical department and received an MRI, which came back clean. Since he began feeling better the next day, deGrom figured he probably slept wrong on his back Monday night. The right-hander said if it happened during the regular season, he would have refrained from telling the team about the tightness.
But the sequence of events still cost deGrom a few extra innings of work in that simulated game. He could have used that time to continue ramping up his pitch count. Now, the 32-year-old figures to throw no more than 85 pitches on opening day, instead of the 100 he had planned. Alas, deGrom is a competitor to the core and he still plans to push himself in the coming days before the Braves travel to Queens.
“I feel like if I wouldn’t have come out in the first (inning), I could’ve been in line for maybe 100 pitches (on opening day),” deGrom said. “But that’s something we’ll discuss and kind of see how the game goes. I feel like my arm is in good shape. So if things go as planned, I’ll see if I can stretch it out to the 90-95 mark.”
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