ARLINGTON -- It’s important to remember that Jacob deGrom is human.
It’s easy to forget. After all, when he’s been healthy deGrom has always looked like the best pitcher on the planet. But even the best is allowed to be mortal -- even if being mortal for him is a regular day at the office for everyone else.
The Rangers' ace allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings of work in a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Monday to open their homestand. deGrom gave up five hits and two walks, while recording zero strikeouts for the first time in his 229 big league starts. Of note: the Blue Jays entered play Monday with an American League-low 380 strikeouts.
“I actually didn't know that, I heard it when I walked inside,” deGrom said of his lack of strikeouts. “But they were aggressive early. They were putting a lot of balls in play early, so I was like, ‘Oh, man, I might be able to go deep in this game.’ I was fighting myself a bit; started yanking the ball, walked a couple guys there and I just wasn't very efficient.”
While Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman tore through the Rangers' lineup, completing eight innings and allowing just one run on a Wyatt Langford solo homer, deGrom grinded through every at-bat and faltered more than usual.
Dating back to Spring Training, deGrom has been fighting his mechanics a bit, flying open and struggling to locate his pitches arm side. He’s worked in every start to get it cleaned up, and for the most part has done so.
That’s likely part of what led to his lack of strikeouts and whiffs (three).
“Today it kind of took a step in the wrong direction,” deGrom said. “I wasn't able to really locate down and, you know, pitch off that with my slider. I had some good takes on sliders. I threw it right off the plate every once in a while, but was never able to throw a fastball, really, where I wanted to. That part was frustrating.”
deGrom was removed from the game in the sixth inning at 81 pitches as the Rangers keep an eye on his workload. He had thrown 199 pitches between his previous two starts against the Astros and Yankees.
“I thought we were at the stage now,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That's why we did what we did, why we took him out. There's gonna be games like this where we are going to monitor his workload -- tonight was one of them.”
Some type of monitoring of deGrom’s workload was bound to happen eventually. He underwent his second Tommy John surgery in June 2023, just six starts into his Texas tenure. He made three starts last September, recording a 1.69 ERA and striking out 14 in 10 2/3 innings.
deGrom only made nine starts through his first two seasons in Texas and only 35 starts over the previous four years combined. He hasn’t thrown more than 100 innings since 2019 (204 in 32 starts), when he won his second consecutive Cy Young Award while with the Mets. That was the last time he was healthy across an entire season.
And keeping him healthy will be key if the Rangers want to compete down the stretch, regardless of whether the offense finds a pulse or not.
“I feel good,” deGrom said. “I honestly haven't been thinking about it. I've just been trying to go out there and put us in a position to win. Today, I got beat on a couple pitches, and had some walks like I said. I wasn't locating well. I was fighting myself all day. Workload or whatever aside, I just gotta throw the ball better than that.”