I like this image because it was Washington versus New York, but the story was definitely deGrom.

Mets 6, Nationals 0

(8-7, 0.5 up on Philadelphia [as of this writing])

When you have a pitcher like Jacob deGrom it should be easy.

He’s your stopper.

When you have, say, a three-game losing streak in Chicago, and then deGrom is scheduled to pitch, you breathe a sigh of relief because he’ll win and get you back on track.

Too often with deGrom, though, it gets complicated, because he pitches beautifully, but the bats freeze up, and the struggles continue, and then they pile up, and problems ensue.

For the Mets deGrom hasn’t been a stopper - through no fault of his own. He almost compounds the problems, because I think the team gets down on itself for not coming through for him.

All of which is to say, Friday night was wonderful to watch.

deGrom was once again his dominant self - to the tune of a career-high 15 strikeouts. (Which he accomplished through 7 innings.)

He pitched a complete game, 2-hit shutout on a night that the bullpen was strapped.

And he broke the ice for the offense, driving in the first run with a double in what became a 3-run fifth inning.

We’ll see how the team handles his next start - if this alleviates some of the pressure or if the stiffness in deGrom’s starts returns.

But a big division win from your ace following a three-game losing streak is exactly the way things are supposed to go for winning teams.

Notes: There’s just a laundry list of records deGrom set Friday night, but to name a couple, he became the first player to strike out 50 in his first 4 stats and he also became the third player to get 14+ strikeouts in three straight starts…In the second inning Pete Alonso walked, and then hustled his butt off to get to third on a bloop single to left by Michael Conforto. I took it as a good sign that the team a) wanted to put the losing streak behind them and b) wanted to get runs for deGrom. Of course, with runners on first and third J.D. Davis struck out and then Jeff McNeil grounded into a double play…The Mets did their Jackie Robinson Day tribute tonight, because it got postponed last week. Probably good to not put it off but I remember past years when that game got rained out the makeup game was the Jackie Robinson game, and it was always weird to see everyone wearing number 42 on a random day in late August…The Mets are now 5-1 at home.

How I Watched: Missed the first inning because we were watching the finale of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.’ Then I had the second TV on while I played a little of ‘The Show’. Pretty good Friday night actually.

What Else I Watched: Nothing else today. But I didn’t watch a lot of baseball this week so I spent a lot of the day catching up on what’s been happening.

Notes From Around The League: Here are a couple of notables from that catching up: Corbin Burnes of the Brewers has had quite a start. 40 strikeouts and zero walks in his first four starts…And the A’s have won 12 straight after beating the Orioles on Friday. Wednesday afternoon was crazy, not just because they rallied, but the fact they rallied with two outs and thanks to quite a few Twins errors…The Mets might have woken up the Cubs. They beat Milwaukee Friday afternoon, 15-2…It was those 7:30 starts in Chicago that really affected my writing the past couple of days too. Just late enough to affect me. Not looking forward to a west coast swing.