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Jacob deGrom was Mr. Untouchable for the first 17 batters he faced Sunday, before the laws of endurance perhaps found him in his second major league start in 13 months for the Mets. 

His 73rd pitch of the day was a 98-mph fastball that missed high for ball four to Ehire Adrianza, giving the Braves their first base runner. Three pitches later, Dansby Swanson homered over the right-center field fence to finally give the Braves a hit and runs. DeGrom was finished for the day. 

By that point, the Mets had a three-run lead and were on their way to completing a beatdown of their NL East rival with a 5-2 victory at Citi Field. 

By winning four of five games in the series, the Mets issued a sizable blow to the Braves’ chances of winning a fifth straight NL East title. The Braves left town trailing by 6 ½ games in the division. They still have seven games remaining against the Mets in Atlanta over two series, which might be their greatest source of hope in a race that is slipping from their grasp. 

DeGrom, in his 200th career start and his first home start since July 7 of last season, was a machine into the sixth. Included was at least one strikeout of each batter in the Braves’ lineup. DeGrom recorded 15 straight outs on 56 pitches, before he struck out Marcell Ozuna and Michael Harris II to begin the sixth, bringing his total to 12 strikeouts. Adrianza’s walk and Swanson’s homer prompted manager Buck Showalter to retrieve the ball from deGrom, who left to a standing ovation as a show of thanks for his Herculean performance. 

“I was very frustrated walking the nine-hole hitter and then leaving a pitch over the middle of the plate and letting Dansby get it,” deGrom said. “[The applause] was very nice, but in that moment I was pretty heated.” 

Showalter said deGrom would have departed after the sixth inning even if he had still been pitching a perfect game or a no-hitter. DeGrom admitted he wouldn’t have put up a fight to remain in the game. 

“You take that long and it takes you over a year to come back to playing major league baseball and you don’t want to do anything dumb right when you get back, so I probably would have let them take me out,” deGrom said. 

Of particular sharpness was his slider, on which deGrom got 18 straight swings and misses. 

“I noticed it was good in the bullpen,” deGrom said. “I didn’t throw any change-ups and that was part of the reason why, was how good I felt my slider was, so I didn’t want to make a mistake on my changeup and leave one over the middle of the plate, so I mainly stuck fastball, slider.” 

The Mets ace had started the day to rousing applause, entering to “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd — a tune that had been shelved for more than a year as deGrom recovered from various arm ailments and a stress reaction to his right scapula. 

Swanson, before his homer, had struck out to begin the fourth inning. The strikeout was No. 1,518 in deGrom’s career — the most for a pitcher in 200 career starts. 

“[DeGrom] had some incredible moments today,” Pete Alonso said. “It’s going to be really exciting to see when he gets fully built up and throwing like 100, 110 pitches toward the end of the year. It’s going to be really exciting to see how he takes over a game from a pitching standpoint.” 

Reliever Joely Rodriguez stepped up in maybe his top outing of the season by pitching 2 ¹/₃ scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Edwin Diaz struck out the side in the ninth for his 25th save as the Mets’ pitchers finished with 19 strikeouts. 

Braves rookie starter Spencer Strider was knocked out in the third inning after allowing four earned runs on six hits with two walks. The Mets tortured the right-hander with patient at-bats that extended innings. 

Pete Alonso’s grounder off the third-base bag went for a two-run double in the third to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. That gave Alonso 95 RBIs, tops in the NL and two behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge for the MLB lead. 

Daniel Vogelbach followed with a walk before Mark Canha stroked a two-run double that pushed the Braves into a 4-0 hole. The hefty Vogelbach’s rumble around the bases received extra cheers from the crowd. It was the third time this season Vogelbach has scored from first on a double. 

Jeff McNeil doubled leading off the fifth and, after advancing to third on a fly out, scored on Collin McHugh’s wild pitch to give the Mets their fifth run. It was plenty of support for deGrom. 

“I’m obviously happy for the team and Jake, but [also] the fans,” Showalter said. “Jake has meant so much to them and the things he’s done here and hopefully continues to do, you can tell what he’s meant to them.”