ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob deGrom got a first-pitch strike against 13 of the 21 Athletics hitters he faced Monday night, and 19 of his 85 pitches drew a swing and a miss.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said deGrom changed his pitch usage and commanded the sinker inside to right-handed hitters. deGrom faced the minimum through 7 innings in the Texas Rangers‘ 8-1 win at Globe Life Field, allowing 1 hit and no walks with 8 strikeouts.
“Yeah, the sinker usage was good,” Schumaker said. “Commanding inside was fantastic, 60-something percent for first-pitch strikes. On the attack, just he changed his usage a little bit, and that was the biggest key. The sinker inside opened up other pitches.”
deGrom said he and catcher Danny Jansen went through the Athletics lineup before the game and found hitters they thought the sinker would work against.
“I just said to Danny, let’s see how it is in the bullpen,” deGrom said. “And then talking about the hitters before the game there were some guys that we thought it would be useful to throw it to. So had a good feel for it in the bullpen, it was, I was locating it well, so coming in I said to Danny, I was like, hey, we can run it off to some of those lefties, especially if we’ve gone like backdoor slider, run a sinker off, just kind of a change in the look of how I normally pitch and having a good feel for it. I was confident in throwing it tonight.”
Jacob deGrom’s Pitch Mix Against The Athletics
Of the 85 pitches, 56 went for strikes. Alongside the 19 swinging strikes came 7 called strikes, 17 foul balls, and 12 strikes put in play, and the ground-ball to fly-ball split finished even at 6 apiece.
One of those grounders ended the second inning, when Max Muncy hit into a double play that erased Lawrence Butler, who had opened the frame with the only hit of the night against deGrom.
Zack Gelof struck out swinging to end the first inning, one of 11 strikeouts the Athletics took from three Texas pitchers across 28 plate appearances. They went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and left 1 runner on base.
deGrom’s game score of 83 was the highest by any pitcher in the game, and Athletics rookie Gage Jump finished at 22.
Monday was deGrom’s eighth start this season without issuing a walk and his third in which he allowed 1 hit. Jansen, activated from the 60-day injured list this month, caught all 9 innings.
Jacob deGrom At Globe Life Field
At home this season, deGrom is 7-2 with a 2.42 ERA. He is 3-7 with a 5.86 ERA away from Globe Life Field.
On Aug. 20 against the Washington Nationals, in his previous home start, deGrom allowed 1 hit in 6 shutout innings and struck out 10. He passed 2,000 career strikeouts in that game.
At Rate Field on Aug. 25, deGrom needed 42 pitches to get through the first inning, gave up 6 runs in the frame, and finished with 8 runs allowed on 6 hits and 5 walks in 3 2/3 innings of an 11-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Through his first 25 starts this season, deGrom had allowed 26 runs in the first inning and 61 runs overall.
He had gone from 2020 through 2025 without a single start in which he allowed 6 or more runs. He has four of them in 2026.
Monday was his seventh career start against the Athletics. He entered the night 4-1 with a 2.51 ERA in the previous six.
Jacob deGrom’s Contract And Season
The win moved deGrom to 10-9 in his 26th start. He entered Monday 2-3 with a 7.20 ERA in five August starts, and he had posted a 6.67 ERA across seven starts and 29 2/3 innings in the second half through Aug. 25.
deGrom is in the fourth season of the five-year, $185 million contract he signed with Texas in December 2022. He is earning $38 million this season and is owed $37 million in 2027.
He asked for a full no-trade clause when he signed and declined to waive it when the Rangers approached him before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. He turned 38 in June and is in his 13th major league season.
The Rangers are 68-70 and trail the Cleveland Guardians by 1 1/2 games for the third American League wild-card spot. They play 16 of their final 24 games at home.
Left-hander MacKenzie Gore (7-10, 4.40 ERA) starts against Athletics left-hander Brady Basso (0-1, 4.50) on Tuesday. First pitch is 7:05 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network.
