New York Mets' Jacob deGrom scratched with right lat inflammation; game later postponed due to weather

ST. LOUIS -- New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was scratched from Tuesday night's start against  St. Louis -- a game that was later postponed due to weather -- because he was having trouble getting loose as he started to stretch ahead of his outing.

DeGrom underwent an MRI, which showed inflammation of the latissimus dorsi muscle, a back muscle that connects the upper arm to the spine and the hip. He won't throw for a couple of days.

"He let us know earlier today that he had some tightness on his right side," Mets manager Luis Rojas said about three hours before game time. "I saw him before coming to the field, and he was stretching, trying to feel his right side a little bit, and that's when we started discussing whether he's going to start or not."

Rojas said the issue was not evident before Tuesday.

DeGrom, a 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.

The 32-year-old right-hander has reached 100 mph on 46 of 473 pitches this season and lowered his career ERA to 2.55, overtaking Hall of Famer and the late Tom Seaver (2.57) as the Mets career leader.

Relief pitcher Miguel Castro was penciled in to start in place of deGrom before the postponement. The teams will make it up Wednesday as part of a single-admission doubleheader beginning at 4:15 p.m. CT. Both games will be set for seven innings.

Mets right-hander Marcus Stroman will pitch against St. Louis lefty Kwang Hyun Kim in the opener. Cardinals righty Johan Oviedo gets the ball in the nightcap, but the Mets had not announced a starter yet.

Tuesday night's game was delayed at the outset and called after a 38-minute wait.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.