ARLINGTON -- The first batter Rangers starter Jacob deGrom faced Saturday night was his 500th this season, which isn’t all that unusual -- more than 50 MLB pitchers have already cleared that mark -- but deGrom hasn’t seen that heavy of a workload since 2019. The 12th-year veteran righty, so often cursed by injuries over the past five seasons, is treading upon territory he hasn’t seen recently.
The terrain seems to have become challenging lately. But in his strongest start of the second half, Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Phillies, deGrom cruised through six scoreless innings and was achingly close to walking off the mound unscathed before things went awry in the seventh.
With one out against Brandon Marsh, deGrom gave up a grounder that skipped through the hole into right field, then walked Harrison Bader on five pitches. deGrom tried to wedge in a backdoor slider to the next hitter, lefty Max Kepler, on an 0-1 count, but the pitch instead caught the inside edge of the plate. Kepler laced it down the right-field line for a two-run double.
“I just didn’t execute in the spot where I needed to,” deGrom said. “That one’s tough. I’m pretty frustrated with that.”
For deGrom, who gave up three earned runs in 6 2/3 innings, the disappointment of the seventh inning overshadowed all the progress that preceded it.
“I felt good early on,” deGrom said. “Just the seventh there, I gave up the single and then a bad walk to Bader there, and then made a mistake over the middle of the plate. I was trying to go away -- I just didn't execute. That's what ended up costing us the ballgame.”
That might be debatable, considering the Rangers’ offense didn’t put up much of a fight after deGrom departed, save for Corey Seager’s solo homer in the eighth. deGrom was his own harshest critic after the game, but he may have been the only one in the Rangers’ orbit who didn’t give his performance a positive review.
“Great game,” manager Bruce Bochy said of deGrom’s outing. “Tough one not to get a win with the job he did ... terrific job.”
It was as commanding a start as deGrom has turned in since June 25 in Baltimore, when he pitched seven shutout innings and allowed only one hit. During the previous six weeks, deGrom had developed a propensity to give up the long ball, surrendering 10 homers in 33 1/3 innings over six starts. During that period, deGrom’s ERA faded from exceptional (2.08) to merely excellent (2.80). And things seemed to worsen over the last two outings, as he posted an 8.71 ERA and gave up five homers in just 10 1/3 innings.
“I worked on some things in between [starts],” deGrom said. “Just trying to stay closed, not flying open as early. And like I said, early on, it was good. But when I needed to make pitches, I didn't make pitches. We lost the game because of that.”
Again, that might be oversimplifying it, as the Rangers never got a man to third base after Seager scored on a Wyatt Langford double in the first inning. They were caught stealing at two inopportune moments; Adolis García was thrown out at third base with one out in the fourth inning, and Sam Haggerty got caught at second with no outs in the fifth.
“[García] might have hesitated there for a second, and they got him,” Bochy said. “He started and he stopped. We thought he had it. Trying to get a man to third there with one out and it didn’t work out.”
Although deGrom shouldered his third consecutive loss, he accomplished two feats he hadn’t achieved since June 25 in Baltimore: pitching into the seventh inning and striking out eight. He also avoided giving up a home run for the first time since that start.
deGrom passed 100 innings pitched his next time out on July 1, right around the time the results began to taper off after his stellar first half. Saturday marked his 23rd start this season -- more starts than he made in the previous three years combined. If the wear and tear is slowing him down, it wasn’t obvious Saturday, aside from one pitch that haunted him.
“I feel good -- I’ve just got to stop making mistakes,” deGrom said. “My arm feels good. I’m just going to try to keep running out there.”