Jacob deGrom Clears the Air on Words Exchanged With Angel Hernandez

Updated: Sep 10, 5:00pm UTC

Arguably the most elite starting pitcher of his generation, New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom pitched a rare dud outing on Saturday against the Oakland Athletics. deGrom was not his usual self and allowed five earned runs across 4.0 innings pitched.

Frustrations boiled over as deGrom broke his MLB-record of 40 straight games with three or fewer runs allowed, the first time since 2019.

Understandably and visibly discontented, the broadcast caught New York's ace exchanging words with Angel Hernandez, one of the most well-known umpires in the league (and not for a good reason). Check out the exchange below.

Jacob deGrom - Angel Hernandez

deGrom spoke with the media following his outing, and cleared the air on this controversial moment.

On the heels of allowing four runs in just the first inning, deGrom explained how he told Hernandez he disagreed with the strike zone. "I told him I thought those were strikes."

Mets News

There was, however, another exchange in the 2nd inning. One that took on a much lighter note.

"And then I went and looked and I told him going back out in the 2nd, 'Yeah, you got them right.' That's on me. I would have liked to have them, but I looked and they were balls," said deGrom.

This sort of outing is not something Mets fans are accustomed to. deGrom has only allowed five or more earned runs in 15 starts throughout his career, a career that's spanned nine years and more than 200 starts.

New York is back in action for the series finale in Oakland on Sunday. Holding onto just a 1.5-game NL East lead over the Atlanta Braves, the Mets are at +500 odds to win the 2022 World Series on FanDuel Sportsbook.

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.