CHICAGO — Jacob deGrom allowed 6 runs in the first inning at Rate Field on Tuesday night. He finished with 8 runs allowed over 3 2/3 innings, and the Texas Rangers lost to the Chicago White Sox 11-7.
deGrom’s line was 3 2/3 IP, 6 H, 8 ER, 5 BB, and 2 K. He took the loss and fell to 9-9 with a 4.21 ERA in 25 starts. Texas dropped to 66-67 and slipped a half-game behind the Houston Astros in the AL West, with Houston beating the New York Yankees 9-7 in the Bronx the same night. The Rangers are 30-38 on the road.
Jacob deGrom’s 42-Pitch First Inning
deGrom threw 42 pitches before he got out of the opening frame. Chicago sent 10 batters to the plate against him and collected 5 hits and 2 walks. His first out came against the sixth batter he faced, a Chase Meidroth popout to Jake Burger.
Sam Antonacci opened the game with a double inside the left-field line. Munetaka Murakami walked. Miguel Vargas singled to left, and Wyatt Langford threw past third base and into the White Sox dugout trying to catch Antonacci, which moved every runner up a base and scored the first run. Braden Montgomery brought in Murakami. Colson Montgomery walked to load the bases. Tristan Peters dropped a two-run double into shallow right field after the Meidroth popout, and Brenton Doyle grounded a two-run single through a drawn-in infield for a 6-0 lead.
Tyler Alexander warmed in the Texas bullpen while deGrom worked through the inning.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Texas was trying to protect a bullpen that also had to cover Wednesday, and that the Rangers ended up using a lot of pitchers anyway.
“Tough first inning all the way around, unfortunately,” Schumaker said. “They put together some good at-bats against deGrom. Had some defensive miscues early on, and thought they did a good job on the other side with really not swinging and missing against deGrom’s usually really good slider. So a couple walks added on and a couple timely hits, and we put a good attack against them as well. I’m proud of the fight back obviously, but we just couldn’t keep them there, and they just kept tacking on runs.”
Texas committed 1 error. Chicago went 8-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
The Slider Did Not Get A Swing
deGrom threw 21 sliders on Tuesday. He drew no swinging strikes and no chases with the pitch, and 4 of the 21 went for strikes.
The 6 runs in the first tied the most deGrom has allowed in an inning. He gave up 6 in the fourth inning on Sept. 5, 2017, pitching for the New York Mets against the Philadelphia Phillies. The 42 pitches were the second-most he has thrown in an inning. He threw 45 in a first inning in Philadelphia on May 13, 2018.
deGrom had not allowed 8 runs in a start since that Sept. 5, 2017, outing, when he gave up 9. He made no starts of 6 or more runs allowed between 2020 and 2025. Tuesday was his fourth this season.
deGrom said the slider was a ball out of his hand and never competitive, and that his changeup was fine, in an availability reported by MLB.com.
“I’ve got to do a better job,” deGrom said. “I put us in a bad spot to start the game. I’ve said that too many times to you guys this year. It’s frustrating. Tonight’s on me. I gave up six in the first. I’ve got to figure out a way to get outs, and I wasn’t able to do it. Walks, falling behind. I have to do a better job. So I did a terrible job, and that’s what it is.”
Texas Rangers Cut A Seven-Run Deficit To Three
Burger homered for the only Texas run through 4 innings. Colson Montgomery pushed the Chicago lead to 8-1 with a two-run single off deGrom in the fourth, and Schumaker replaced him with Cole Winn before the inning was over.
Danny Jansen hit a two-run homer over the White Sox bullpen in left field in the fifth. Anthony Kay then walked a batter and hit another before Ezequiel Durán singled with two outs to make it 8-4. Kay entered Tuesday with 21 hit batters, the most in the majors. He threw 99 pitches and did not finish the fifth.
Jordan Hicks struck out Burger to strand two runners and end the inning. Chicago scored twice in the bottom of the fifth. Texas came back on Hicks in the sixth with a single, an RBI double, and a two-run homer from Justin Foscue that cut the deficit to 10-7.
Schumaker called the Rangers’ offensive work over the previous three or four nights encouraging.
“If you take him out in the first inning, we’re going to be in trouble, because we had eight innings to cover potentially,” Schumaker explained. “And the residual effect the following day was going to be challenging. So we were probably at the 40-pitch count mark, a hard kind of a stop and go get Alexander at the time. Jacob finished that inning, had a quick second inning. We’re hoping he was going to get a couple quick innings after that. And unfortunately we had to go get him and Winn coming in the game, and just couldn’t complete that fourth inning.”
Peters homered off Peyton Gray for the 11th Chicago run. Hagen Smith walked Langford to open the ninth, then walked Burger and Elias Díaz with two outs to load the bases. Grant Taylor came in and retired the last batter on a ground ball to second for his eighth save. Bryan Hudson got the win after retiring all 4 batters he faced.
Texas out-homered Chicago 3-1 and finished with 11 hits to Chicago’s 14. Both teams left 10 runners on base. The game took 3 hours and 16 minutes in front of an announced crowd of 19,892.
The teams close the three-game series Wednesday at 6:40 p.m. CT at Rate Field. MacKenzie Gore starts for Texas against Sean Burke. The game airs on Rangers Sports Network.
