ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob deGrom walked 1 batter and struck out 10 on Thursday night in a 2-0 Texas Rangers win over the Washington Nationals.
deGrom went 6 innings on 94 pitches and gave up 1 hit and 0 runs. The 10 strikeouts matched his season high, and the 2,000th of his career came on the second batter of the game.
deGrom found his game slider in his bullpen session Thursday afternoon and took it into the start.
“We’re feeling good. Guys show up the same way every day, ready to win,” deGrom said. “There’s obviously some games that I personally wish I could have back. And as a team, we wish we could have back. But that’s in the past, so we’ve got to control what we can, and that’s showing up every day trying to win a baseball game.”
“So moving forward, that’s the thought. And I’ve had starts that haven’t gone well, but hey, that’s in the past,” deGrom continued. “Now it’s what pitch am I about to throw and execute that to the best of my ability.”
“There were times this year where I thought I was trying to be too fine and then missing, walking people,” deGrom added. “And tonight it was like, here’s what I got, and we’ll see if you guys can hit it. And that was kind of the approach that I was taking tonight.”
Texas is 63-65 and tied for the final American League wild card spot. deGrom is 9-8, and he has 2,008 career strikeouts in 1,666 1/3 innings since his debut in 2014.
Jacob deGrom On Repeating His Delivery
The fix deGrom carried into Thursday was staying back over the rubber a beat longer so his front side did not fly open.
“That’s part of the process, always trying to figure out a way to get better. So always trying to be able to repeat your delivery on every pitch,” deGrom explained. “It’s just I’ve noticed that I was kind of flying open a little bit throughout this year at random times, and the fastball wasn’t as good, and then the slider off of it wasn’t as good, and even changeup.”
“Like tonight the changeup was pretty good. I spiked some, whatever, but I threw some good ones, so that was a plus as well,” deGrom continued. “Obviously you want to go out there and not have to think about mechanics at all, but that was just kind of the process throughout this week in trying to get everything back in line. So I was fortunate enough to where it worked out tonight.”
Thursday was the third start of his career with 6 or more scoreless innings, 1 or fewer hits, and 10 or more strikeouts. The first two came with the Mets.
What’s Next For The Texas Rangers
Three Texas relievers finished the one-hitter behind deGrom. Washington’s only hit was a second-inning single by Brady House, who also drew deGrom’s lone walk.
MacKenzie Gore starts for Texas on Friday against Reid Detmers and the Los Angeles Angels. First pitch is 7:15 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field on Rangers Sports Network.
