Mets’ Jacob deGrom throws 3 innings in rehab assignment

Jacob deGrom cleared another hurdle in his return from right side tightness.

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The Mets ace pitched three scoreless innings in a start with the St. Lucie Mets Thursday against the Palm Beach Cardinals. DeGrom’s outing with the Mets’ Low-A affiliate lasted 41 pitches (30 thrown for strikes) and he notched eight punchouts.

DeGrom may be on the mend from a right side injury, but he’s still every bit the same ace.

A trainer was on site to monitor and further analyze deGrom’s performance.

The Mets put deGrom on the injured list back on May 11 with an injury that’s nagged him since the beginning of the month. The right-hander was scratched from his May 4 start against the Cardinals after complaining of right side soreness. An MRI revealed lat inflammaton, but he avoided an IL stint then. DeGrom equated the injury to an off delivery while pitching.

He managed five strong innings on May 9 against the Diamondbacks before alerting the trainer and Luis Rojas that he was feeling the same tightness. They pulled him from the game, scheduled another MRI — which came back clean — but put him on the IL to give him and the Mets training and medical staff time to pin point the source of his discomfort. DeGrom again said he thought his delivery was off, which caused stress in all the wrong places.

“It boils down to, I think, my delivery,” deGrom said the day he was put on the IL. “Having looked at it the past couple days, my direction to the plate, noticing I was underneath the baseball and looking at a couple positions that I’m in before release.

DeGrom said he hoped the IL stint would only cost him one missed start. But as of Wednesday, the Mets skipper had not committed to his return to the rotation in time for the series against the Marlins on Friday — when DeGrom would be eligible to return.