SEATTLE — Something is amiss with Jacob deGrom.
The good news: It’s his command, not his arm.
DeGrom called his five-run, five-inning start at Seattle in the Rangers’ 5-4 loss Sunday on “terrible.” Used the word three times in the span of two minutes describing his day.
There was reason for his harsh self-criticism. This was not a very deGrom-like start. He allowed three homers on Sunday. It’s the first time that’s happened since he signed with the Rangers. He allowed two of them with two outs immediately following a walk. He also walked the first batter of the game. Know how many times deGrom has allowed three free bases and three homers in a game? Well, it hasn’t happened since 2015. And it was the second straight start in which he’s allowed five runs. Yeah, been a while for that, too. 2017, in fact.
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“Today we lost because I did a terrible job once again,” said deGrom, who allowed five runs in 5⅓ innings on Monday in Anaheim, Calif., and has a 4.86 ERA since July 1. “I’ve got to figure it out. I’ve got to make quality pitches. I can’t walk guys with two outs and start throwing the ball down the middle.”
DeGrom has struggled with the command of the slider lately and that problem leaks over into other pitches. He describes his slider mostly as “ball out of the hand,” meaning a batter never sees it in the strike zone, making it noncompetitive. It allows hitters to eliminate the slider as something they have to really watch for.
It allows them to tee off on the fastball. And even 98 mph, which is where his fastball sat Sunday, is hittable when batters are looking for it. Even more so if it catches the heart of the strike zone.
All the metrics around his stuff were in line with season averages, so there wasn’t anything that suggested a physical problem. Though at this point, general fatigue can’t be ruled out. He’s now at 128 innings for the season, the most he’s thrown since 2019. From 2022 through last season, he threw 105 total innings.
Things were problematic for deGrom from the start. He walked Randy Arozarena to start the bottom of the first. With one out in the second, he left a slider in the heart of the zone and Jorge Polanco crushed it for a homer.
The Rangers scored two in the top of the third for him, but he got himself right back into trouble in the third. He pitched around MVP candidate Cal Raleigh with two outs and nobody on to face Julio Rodríguez, but left a first-pitch slider in the heart of the zone. Rodríguez turned it into his 100th career homer.
The Rangers tied it back up for him in the fifth, but the same cycle repeated itself. He walked No. 7 hitter Dominic Canzone on a noncompetitive full-count slider in the dirt with two outs. J.P. Crawford, who hit a walkoff homer against the Rangers on Friday, followed by crushing a 1-1 fastball, also in the heart of the plate.
“I’m just not throwing the ball very well,” said deGrom, who did reach his 1,800th career strikeout during the game. “I’ve got to get back to work and get back on track. We needed to win that game and I came out and did a terrible job.”
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