CINCINNATI — Jacob deGrom usually owns the sunlight hours, but maybe the partly cloudy conditions at Great American Ball Park could explain his lackluster Thursday.
In a rare daytime misstep, the right-hander scuffled over six innings in the Mets’ 7-2 loss to the Reds.
DeGrom, who entered with a career 1.88 ERA in day games — the lowest such number by any pitcher since 1913 (minimum 200 innings pitched) — surrendered an early home run to Scooter Gennett and never recovered.
In all, deGrom surrendered four runs, one of which was unearned, on six hits and three walks over six innings in the loss. DeGrom (14-8) remains one victory short of establishing a career high in wins.
DeGrom increased his workload to 178 ²/₃ inning as he attempts to reach the 200 plateau in the regular season for the first time in his career.
“The goal is now to get to 200 innings,” said deGrom, who never has reached that plateau. “The guys who are the best in the game pitch 200 innings.”
Gennett hit a two-run homer in the second, and the Reds scored an unearned run in the third on Amed Rosario’s throwing error. Gennett delivered an RBI double in the fifth to complete the scoring against deGrom, who has surrendered three earned runs or more in three of his past four starts.
Jeurys Familia, in his third appearance since returning from the disabled list, allowed a solo homer to Joey Votto in the seventh. Stuart Turner hit a two-run homer against Erik Goeddel in the eighth to complete the Reds’ scoring.
Mets players plan to spend Friday’s off day in Houston participating in volunteer work as the city deals with severe flooding from Hurricane Harvey and subsequent heavy rain.
Manager Terry Collins said his team has little trepidation about heading into Houston.
“We are not going to see people laying in the streets,” Collins said. “Downtown is cleaned up and they would not send us in there if there was danger of any sort.”
Travis Taijeron singled to left field in the fourth inning for his first major league hit.