Major League Baseball

Why Terry Collins didn't let Jacob deGrom go the distance in gem

Published May. 22, 2015 6:33 a.m. ET

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New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom was three outs away from a potential one-hit gem that would have served as the first complete game shutout of his career.

Only, manager Terry Collins pulled him out of the game after the eighth inning, denying him a shot to finish his masterpiece and potentially retire the remaining three batters of the game to swell his total to 26 consecutive batters.

Collins explained to reporters after the game that deGrom has recently been dealing with soreness in both his hip and shoulder and the manager had planned to cap his young ace's pitch total at 110 for the outing.

While he didn't go the distance, deGrom's outing Thursday served as the best in his career, as he finished with 11 strikeouts and no walks, only allowing one hit in eight innings and retiring 23 consecutive batters.

The 26-year-old, who won the NL Rookie of the Year award last year, remains eager to notch his first complete game.

"I haven't thrown a complete game in the big leagues," deGrom said. "That's something I want to do. But I had a lot of pitches early on. My goal was to try to stay in there for at least seven. Then, whenever they let me go back out for the eighth, I was just happy to do that."

(h/t ESPN)

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