Franchise Friday: deGrom Perfect Through Six in Mets 5-0 win over Giants All-Time Greats

Week 6 of Franchise Fridays returned us to Citi Field, where the All-Time Mets Greats hosted the All-Time Giants Greats in what has become our favorite winter pastime: using Strat-O-Matic All-Time Great teams to give Mets fans something glorious to stare at when the real box scores are frozen solid. Dice were rolled. Cards were flipped. Legends were unleashed.

Looking for back-to-back wins, the Mets entered play hoping to gain their first bit of momentum all season. After opening 0–4, the Mets had clawed their way to 1–4, and with this one, they were looking to do something almost unheard of in Mets history—string together a winning streak.

On the mound for the Mets was Jacob deGrom, which meant two things:

The Giants were in trouble.

The strikeout counter was about to get a workout.

From the opening pitch, deGrom was untouchable. Willie Mays struck out looking. Mel Ott grounded out. Barry Bonds—yes, that Barry Bonds—went down looking. And so it went, inning after inning, as deGrom turned Citi Field into his personal pitching lab.

The Mets offense gave him just enough early support. In the bottom of the first, Carlos Beltrán and David Wright set the table, and although Mike Piazza grounded into a double play, a run scored. It wasn’t pretty, but it counted. Mets 1, Giants 0.

Then Pete Alonso took over.

In the second inning, Alonso launched a 113.8 MPH solo homer to right field, the kind of swing that reminds you why he belongs in any “All-Time Mets” conversation—especially in a simulation where pitchers never get tired and fastballs never lose velocity.

The third inning was where the game went from competitive to cruise control. Piazza doubled, Darryl Strawberry followed with a towering two-run homer to left, and Alonso—clearly not satisfied—hit his second home run of the afternoon, this one to center. Just like that, it was 5–0, and deGrom had the kind of cushion he usually only dreams about.

Meanwhile, the Giants still had nothing. Through six innings, deGrom had not allowed a hit. Not one. He struck out everyone from Willie Mays to Barry Bonds to Buster Posey, mixing upper-90s heat with sliders that appeared to fall off the table somewhere near Queens Boulevard.

Finally, in the seventh, Willie Mays spoiled the no-hit bid with a leadoff single. He promptly stole second, because Willie Mays always does everything well. But that’s when deGrom turned the drama knob back to zero. He struck out Mel Ott, then got Barry Bonds to hit a screaming line drive that David Wright snared and turned into a double play, doubling Mays off second. Through seven innings, deGrom had still faced the minimum.

The Giants managed only one more baserunner the rest of the game, a Jeff Kent single in the eighth. That was it. Two hits total. No runs. Fourteen strikeouts. A pitching performance so dominant it probably came with its own insurance policy.

The Mets didn’t score again, but they didn’t need to. deGrom finished what he started, closing out a 5–0 shutout that felt equal parts overpowering and inevitable.

When the dust settled, the All-Time Mets Greats had not only beaten the All-Time Giants—they had bullied them. Alonso homered twice. Strawberry and Piazza delivered the thunder. Beltrán set the tone at the top of the lineup. And deGrom authored one of the most dominant Strat-O-Matic performances in Franchise Friday history.

With the win, the Mets improve to 2–4 and—brace yourselves—are officially on a two-game winning streak.

In the world of Franchise Fridays, anything is possible. Even Mets fans smiling in December.