deGrom dominates, nearly perfect

Nearly two months after the first perfect game in DMBL history, Jacob deGrom came within one error of notching the second.

The Livingston ace was thoroughly dominant on Tuesday night as he mowed down the Hoboken Cutters for the second no-hitter this season. It's the 28th no-hitter and 21st complete game no-hitter in league history. The 17-0 obliteration of Hoboken, including a meltdown of epic proportions with 1 out to go, nearly overshadowed deGrom's masterpiece.

Of the 27 outs, DeGrom struck out 13, with 10 outs via the infield and 4 by fly ball. Seventy-five of his 112 pitches (66.9%) went for strikes. The only thing that kept deGrom from a perfecto was Juan Soto mishandling a LaMont Wade flyball to right field for an error with one out in the 7th.

The 34-year-old improved to 14-3 on the season and may have solidified his case for the Ben McDonald Award down the stretch, with about 10 starts remaining for most pitchers. deGrom lowered his ERA to 1.83 and and his WHIP to 0.68, with an astonishing 6.5 R/9 and 4.5 H/9, to go with 253 strikeouts -- all tops in the league -- in 24 starts.

Livingston entered the 9th inning with a sufficient 3-0 lead after Hoboken starter Pablo Lopez went a solid 8 innings, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs. Free agent injury replacement Connor Brogdon got the 1st and 3rd batters out but walked Justin Turner in between and it only got uglier from there. Mookie Betts singled, Carlos Correa doubled and Kolten Wong singled to each drive in a run, to make it 6-0 and send Brogdon to the showers.

Kendall "Kerosene" Graveman came on and here was the sequence: single, walk, grand slam home run by Vlad Guerrero Jr. to make it 10-0 and turn over the lineup, single, hit by pitch (Turner up again), walk, and walk to score a run (11-0). With the bases loaded, Graveman gave way to Richard Rodriguez. Correa plated two more runs with a single before Wong re-loaded the bases with an infield single. At 13-0, Livingston continued clearing the bench, pinch-hitting for Jason Castro with Eric Haase, who then launched a grand slam to make it 17-0. Chad Pinder picked up a single pinch-hitting for Soto before Rodriguez finally retired pinch-hitter Albert Pujols, batting for Guerrero, to mercifully end the inning. In total, Livingston scored 14 runs in the 9th, finishing with 17 runs on 17 hits, leaving just 3 on base.

In all, the Lords of Swing batted around precisely two times in the 9th, including those two grand slams -- all but Turner's walk coming with two outs. That's 6 singles, a double, 4 walks, a HBP, 2 grand slams, and a partridge in a pear tree. Guerrero, Castro and Correa each had 3 hits leading the way, with Vlad Jr. a team-high 5 RBI, and Turner scored 3 times. Only Brandon Belt and Starling Marte lacked hits, both going 0-4.