ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob deGrom has gone more than a month since winning a game for the Texas Rangers, and that is frustrating the All-Star pitcher.
DeGrom gave up a home run on the first pitch of his first game in 10 days, after the Rangers skipped his last scheduled start because of what was described as shoulder fatigue, and they trailed throughout in a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.
The 37-year-old deGrom is 0-4 in five starts since his last win July 22, when he was 10-2 after coming off being the only Rangers player to make the AL All-Star team. He struck out seven, walked two and hit a batter while allowing two runs and three hits in his third start against the Angels since the start of July. He needed 90 pitches (56 strikes) to get through five innings.
“Tonight just was inconsistent the whole time. Missed with a lot of sliders, missed with fastballs, first pitch of the game threw right down the middle,” deGrom said. “Just kind of all over the place, so that was frustrating.”
It was deGrom’s first start since throwing five scoreless innings Aug. 15 at Toronto, when he exited with a 3-0 lead but didn’t get a decision in what turned into a 6-5 loss for the Rangers. He said he felt good going into his 25th start of the season after some extra rest.
“That’s what’s frustrating about it. You go out there and you feel good,” he said. “The bullpen in between felt really good, warming up felt good, and then go out there and just not able to throw the ball where I want to.”
After Zach Neto hit his Angels’ franchise-record ninth leadoff homer this season, deGrom retired 10 batters in a row while striking out half of them. But even in that stretch, deGrom said he got away with missing a lot of spots with his slider and changeup, and ran up his pitch count.
When striking out the side in the fourth, deGrom gave up a one-out walk to Taylor Ward, who scored after consecutive two-out singles to put L.A. up 2-0.
DeGrom, who missed most of the last two seasons because of Tommy John surgery soon after joining the Rangers, said he feels good physically after 145 1/3 innings pitched this year. That is his most since 204 for the New York Mets in 2019, when he won his second consecutive NL Cy Young Award. That was also the last time he had a longer stretch of games in the same season without a win (six).
“He’ll keep making his starts until we think he needs a break like we just gave him a break,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s healthy, he feels good. As long as that’s the case, he’s going to be out there.”
He threw only 191 innings combined from 2020-24, starting with the pandemic-shortened season. Two injury-plagued years followed to end his time with the Mets before going to the Rangers in free agency. He made six starts in his Texas debut in 2023 before his elbow surgery, then didn’t pitch again until three games at the end of last season.
His last win, when allowing one run over six innings against the Athletics just over a month ago, also came with nine days between starts. But that extended break was coming out of the All-Star break after he didn’t pitch for the American League squad in Atlanta.
Now with just under five weeks left in the regular season, and the Rangers desperately trying to make a push to get into a wild-card spot, deGrom hopes to pitch every fifth game.
“The goal is to take the ball as many times as I can, and feel good,” he said. “So try to continue to take the ball and just do a better job when I’m out there.”