Mets' deGrom retires final 23 batters in dominant win over Cardinals

Last year's Rookie of the Year is beginning to pitch like this season's Cy Young.

New York Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom turned in his finest performance of the season Thursday, hurling eight scoreless innings of one-hit ball and allowing just one baserunner in a dominant 5-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field.

DeGrom (5-4) retired 23 straight Cardinals after surrendering a one-out single to Matt Carpenter in the first, becoming just the fourth pitcher in franchise history to strike out at least 10 batters with no walks and one hit allowed or fewer in a start.

DeGrom, who was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the eighth after 104 pitches, 79 of which were thrown for strikes, struck out a season-high 11 batters and induced 18 swinging whiffs. Manager Terry Collins said he pulled his starter as a precaution because deGrom has been dealing with hip and shoulder soreness in recent weeks, and was close to his 110-pitch cap.

"I haven't thrown a complete game in the big leagues," deGrom told ESPN's Adam Rubin. "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."

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

It's the third time in his last four starts that deGrom has allowed one run or fewer, and seventh outing overall he's limited the opposition to no more than three runs.