Jacob deGrom had this one circled on his calendar.
He looked at the beginning of the season and wanted the chance to return to Citi Field.
Finally on Friday night, that opportunity came.
The right-hander knew it was going to be a special night, and that it was.
He couldn’t help but get emotional as the Mets took a look back at his prestigious nine-year career with the club with a tribute video before transitioning to his signature warmup song, “Simple Man” as he played catch pregame.
But once the action got underway, it was business as usual.
“It was really cool,” deGrom said. “This is where it all started, coming back here I thought it was going to be a very special day — thankful to the Mets for playing that and like I said, these fans were great to me while I was here and that was a really nice thing to do.”
Fittingly, the 37-year-old was handed immediate run support, something he lacked throughout his time with the Mets.
The Rangers jumped on New York’s young right-hander Jonah Tong for a total of six runs on four hits and three walks in the top of the first, handing their hard-throwing ace the big advantage before he even threw a pitch.
DeGrom responded with a six-pitch bottom-half of the inning.
He worked around a one out Mark Vientos single in the bottom of the second, but then the bottom of the Mets’ order got to him in the third, as a solo homer and a pair of sacrifice flies made it a three-run ballgame.
But as Mets fans are very familiar with, it was lights out from there, as deGrom would set down the next 13 hitters in order to close out his night with seven strong innings.
He ended up taking home his 12th victory of the season after allowing those three runs on four hits and no walks while striking out just two batters on the evening.
“It means a lot,” deGrom said. “The fans were great to me tonight and they were great to me when I was here, I always enjoyed taking the mound in front of this crowd, so tonight was just as special.”
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