NEW YORK -- As Jacob deGrom rumbles into the final stretch of his best season ever, his manager knows "he's probably going to experience something that he's never experienced before." A pitching coach during both of Corey Kluber's American League Cy Young Award seasons in Cleveland, Mickey Callaway recalls the shift in Kluber's demeanor during his final half-dozen starts those years. He figures deGrom, similarly, "is going to be in a race for something else and it's going to mean a lot to him."
It was with that as a backdrop that Callaway stretched deGrom into the seventh inning of the Mets' 8-5 win over the Yankees on Monday, allowing his ace to return to the mound at 104 pitches.