How Jacob deGrom transformed into baseball’s most dominating pitcher

Jacob deGromHe looked at two batters. For the first time in a year and a half, Jacob deGrom had to delve into video to watch what he did not want to see. The Twins had overwhelmed him Tuesday: Three homers. Eight hits. Six runs. Just four innings.

The following day he cued up his worst performance since early September 2017. Except, in his estimation, the mechanics were good. So was the stuff.

“I was just missing in the middle.” He made the determination after two batters. “There is no reason to keep looking at this.”

He had his answer. Bad location. In 2017, a series of poor starts moved deGrom to live in the video room, trying to unearth the minutiae that would decode his problems. Until…