NEW YORK – Jacob deGrom returned to New York – even though it was only for a few days.
On Wednesday, deGrom pitched in the Big Apple for the first time since Oct. 8, 2022, when he helped the Mets avoid elimination in the National League Wild Card Series by defeating the Padres, 7-3, at Citi Field. In that game, deGrom pitched six solid innings and allowed two runs against San Diego.
“You miss that much time, it’s good to pitch anywhere,” deGrom said. “Having spent most of my career in New York and getting back to New York, it was fun.”
But deGrom is no longer a member of the Mets. He became a free agent after the 2022 season and signed a five-year, $185 million contract with the Rangers. The first two years of the contract were spent mostly on the injured list.
Year 3, however, is a different story. deGrom is injury-free and back to being the dominant starter who won Cy Young Awards with the Mets in 2018 and ‘19. Wednesday was vintage deGrom, as he was filthy against the Yankees, but received a no-decision in a 4-3 loss at Yankee Stadium.
deGrom left the game after seven innings with a 3-2 lead. It was also the first time he threw over 100 pitches as a member of the Rangers. Was it a big deal to deGrom?
“Honestly, I haven’t even thought about it. I was trying to go out there and prevent them from scoring runs,” he said. “At some point I knew I would be able to get over the 100-pitch mark. I was building into it. Everything felt good. I felt like everything was still working.”
However, the Rangers’ bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. In the eighth with Luke Jackson on the mound, Aaron Judge singled to left field, allowing Paul Goldschmidt to score the tying run. It didn’t help that Robert Garcia walked two batters earlier in the frame.
An inning later, with Jackson still on the mound, Jasson Domínguez ended the game with a monster shot that went over the right-field wall for his sixth home run of the season. It spoiled the New York homecoming for deGrom.
“The thought process was to get six outs and we couldn’t do it. The walks hurt us there. That put us in a tough situation,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “You played close and things like this could happen. The [Yankees] came back.”
The loss spoiled a great outing from deGrom, who dominated lefty hitters with his changeup, while the right-handed hitters had problems with his slider, fastball and curveball combination.
“I had a good feel for the changeup tonight. I was able to mix it in quite a bit, especially to those lefties,” deGrom said. “I’ve been working on it in between starts. Tonight in the bullpen it was good. We decided to throw it quite a bit.”
It was a game that saw deGrom get off to a slow start. In the first inning, he threw 22 pitches trying his best to keep Judge and Cody Bellinger off the bases, but they walked and singled, respectively. Fortunately, they didn’t score that inning. But New York took a 1-0 lead the following frame when Anthony Volpe scored on a groundout by DJ LeMahieu.
After that, deGrom retired the next 15 batters he faced before allowing a solo homer to Bellinger in the seventh inning.
“The first inning, I felt like I was flying open a little bit. So I really tried to stay closed and that seemed to help me a little bit better,” deGrom said. “I was yanking some balls early on, especially to Judge. He is a guy you have to be smart. You don’t want to make a mistake with him. After that at-bat, I tried to lock it in.”
The Rangers couldn’t stay locked when it came to performing in the batter’s box. They went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. All three of their runs came on solo homers – two by Jake Burger and the other by Sam Haggerty. In the sixth, they had the bases loaded with two outs, but Tucker Barnhart grounded out to end the threat.
“We just can’t tack on. You play it close, things like this could happen. The Yankees came back,” Bochy said. “What’s happening is that we are not getting the big hit. I hate to keep it simple, but that’s what it is. We gotta have someone come through and give us a margin for error.”