LEADING OFF: Mets check deGrom, Soto eases back with Nats

A look at what's happening around the majors on Wednesday:

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DEJINXED

The Mets will see how ace Jacob deGrom is feeling, a day after he was scratched from his start at St. Louis when he had trouble getting loose during a pregame stretch.

“He let us know earlier today that he had some tightness on his right side,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said.

DeGrom was getting tests to pinpoint the problem. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner has been baseball’s most dominant pitcher this season, with a major league-best 0.51 ERA in five starts, 59 strikeouts in 35 innings and just four walks.

Still, he is just 2-2 as New York continues to have trouble scoring runs for him.

TAKE IT EASY

NL batting champion Juan Soto will be limited to pinch-hitting duty for now with Washington after coming off the injured list.

Soto missed 10 games with a strained left shoulder and wasn’t in the starting lineup Tuesday night against Atlanta. Manager Dave Martinez said the injury no longer bothers Soto while hitting, but he is not yet ready to play the outfield.

Soto was hitting .300 with two homers and eight RBIs in 14 games before getting hurt. He hit an NL-best .351 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Martinez did not provide a timetable for when Soto would return to right field but said he likely would be the designated hitter during this weekend’s interleague series at Yankee Stadium.

WHO’S OUT FIRST?

Hours after Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw had the shortest outing of his sensational career in a loss at Wrigley Field, Colorado starter German Marquez fared even worse at Coors Field.

Kershaw lasted just one inning Tuesday, allowing four runs and falling to the Cubs 7-1 in the first game of a doubleheader. The three-time NL Cy Young Award...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/LEADING-OFF-Mets-check-deGrom-Soto-eases-back-16151648.php