Michael Conforto celebrated his 28th birthday on Monday, and did so by doing something very few people can say they’ve ever done.
He hit two home runs off of Jacob deGrom.
Prior to starting Saturday’s game against the Astros, deGrom threw a live batting practice session on Monday, one in which Conforto was initially not planning on hitting.
“I looked at the list and he wasn’t on it,” deGrom said. “I said, ‘Conforto, you want your birthday off? You’re not going to hit?’”
“Jake was working on some stuff and he wanted me to jump into his live BP,” Conforto said. “We talked a little about it that morning. He kind of asked me, “Are you scared to jump in?” I was like, “No, I’m not scared.’”
It was, as they say, on.
Conforto struck out in his first at-bat, then deGrom got him to ground out in his second at-bat. Frustrated, Conforto came up to the plate for one more shot. He said deGrom left a two-seam fastball over the plate, and he took it over the fence for a home run.
“I started jogging off the field and back to the clubhouse, basically saying I’m done,” Conforto said. “I’ll take 1-for-3 off of deGrom. So I took all my stuff off and sat down.”
But deGrom wasn’t finished with the birthday boy yet.
“He’s starting to work up to his pitch count and he looks at me and goes, ‘You’re not done, you’re facing me one more time.’”
So back went Conforto to the plate. And though controversy ensued this time, the outfielder got the ace again.
“So I jumped out there, he threw me four changeups in a row, then a fastball. Then there was some discrepancy as to whether or not I had walked. I thought I had walked, but he wouldn’t let me walk. Maybe I got the count wrong, I’m not sure. Then the next pitch I ended up hitting a slider.”
“I guess I got what I asked for,” deGrom joked.
Though he was certainly pleased with his pair of homers, Conforto insisted he didn’t see deGrom’s best and that the right-hander was just doing some routine spring training experimentation.
“He was just out there working on some stuff, messing around,” Conforto said. “I didn’t see the 98, 99, 100 like we saw [Saturday].”