'Dang it, I wanted that': deGrom loses no-hit bid in 8th inning

BALTIMORE -- As Jacob deGrom walked off of the mound at Camden Yards on Wednesday night, he was greeted by a wall of noise.

Many Orioles faithful and Rangers fans alike rose, giving the Texas ace a standing ovation.

deGrom had carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning of the Rangers’ 7-0 win, continuing to defy expectations outing after outing.

Making his team-leading 16th start of the season, deGrom allowed just one hit and two walks over seven-plus scoreless innings, striking out seven. He faced one batter in the eighth, giving up a single to Colton Cowser, before he was pulled.

“I even stood over there and said to [Cowser], like, ‘Dang it, I wanted that,’” deGrom said. “But it’s -- they’re Major League hitters, too. So I threw a fastball -- I think it was a fastball, I asked when I came in. Think I kind of blacked out, but I was like, ‘What did I throw there?’ And it was a fastball, and he got to it.”

deGrom was perfect through six innings before issuing a leadoff walk to Jackson Holliday -- who, ironically, also walked to end Jacob Latz’s perfect bid the prior night. deGrom, though, has a little more experience than Latz, and he managed to escape what became a two-walk seventh inning with a no-hitter intact.

Latz and deGrom became the first pair of starters in Rangers history to have no-hit bids of at least six innings in back-to-back starts, per the Elias Sports Bureau. The last pair to do so in MLB was Spencer Turnbull (6 1/3) and Zack Wheeler (7 1/3) for the Phillies on April 19-20, 2024.

Both Latz and deGrom -- especially deGrom, actually -- had success in part because of the Orioles’ struggles with changeups.

The night prior, Latz had used his changeup more than the O’s scouting reports had indicated, which made it harder for them to game plan. deGrom did the same thing, breaking out his changeup (which he tends to use more heavily his third time through the lineup) earlier -- including four of the offspeed offerings in the first inning.

“Looking at how lineups were attacking me, it’s a lot easier when you can sit two pitches, so just mix it up early and try to continue to mix it throughout the game,” deGrom said.

"He had his plus-plus stuff tonight,” Cowser said. “Locating his slider really well, pitching off of it with the changeup more so than he has in the past and locating a heater when he needed to. Any time a guy like that who has a heater like that -- and he's able to locate his two other pitches like that, you know it’s going to be a challenge. So yeah, it was a little bit of a relief [to get that hit].”

The scoreless outing extended deGrom’s streak to 13 straight starts of at least five innings and two or fewer runs allowed, which is the longest such streak in Rangers/Senators history and the longest in MLB this year.

“Just try not to get too far ahead of myself,” deGrom said, “take it one day at a time. And when I’m out there, I try to take it one pitch at a time and try to hit my spot. And if I miss, go back to that mentality and just try to make the next pitch.”

That’s a similar attitude to what Marcus Semien described postgame on the offensive side. The finale win over the O’s secured the Rangers’ fourth straight road series win -- their longest road series winning streak since 2023 when they went 6-0 from May 5-31.

Oh, and it was also their 40th win of the season.

To carry that success into a homestand that opens with three games vs. division rival Seattle, Texas needs all the momentum it can get -- and the offense picked up quite a bit of momentum on Wednesday night.

The Rangers brought runs across in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, including home runs from Josh Jung (two-run) and Jonah Heim (solo). That, plus back-to-back lights-out outings from their starters? Yeah, there’s some momentum on that plane headed back to Texas.

“We just got to take it one game at a time,” Semien said. “We can’t try and take off, we have to play well each and every day.”