SURPRISE, Ariz. — You watch Jacob deGrom pitch, even in March, and it’s hard to reconcile his comments with the reality.
“It’s better, but it still feels like too much off a thought right now,” deGrom said after mostly breezing through three scoreless innings against the Chicago Cubs Tuesday in an 8-3 Rangers win. “I just want to continue working on that trust in mechanics. Because right now it’s still quite a bit of, like, ‘Hey, stay back. Do this. Do this. Do this.’
“So I want it to be where it just feels more natural where it’s ‘There’s the glove. Hit it. I’m going to continue working on that in catch play and bullpen sessions so that everything is in line and its not so much thought.”
DeGrom threw just 43 pitches in his three innings or work, struck out five and walked one. And, yes, deGrom displayed visible frustration after the second inning walk. He allowed two first inning singles, one on a broken bat and one on a line drive.
Rangers
— Kumar Rocker’s day, pitching behind deGrom, could only be described as an encouraging outing despite allowing a pair of runs in four innings. Rocker retired the first seven batters he faced and finished by retiring the last four. He struck out five and didn’t walk anybody. And he retired the three batters he faced twice.
But — and there always seems like there is a but — Rocker threw only three changeups in his 47-pitch outing. The change is something the Rangers have emphasized for him to be successful for a second or third trip through the lineup. In 115 pitches thus far this spring, Rocker has used the pitch only five times and gotten only two swings.
— This is how it is supposed to look: Corey Seager came up in the first inning with two on and nobody out, worked to a 2-0 count against Cade Horton and then slammed a fastball down the middle for a three-run homer.
As a comparison, a year ago, when Seager took 40 starts in the No. 3 spot, he only had five chances to hit with two on and nobody out in the first – an extremely advantageous situation. He was 0 for 4 with a sacrifice fly in those plate appearances, seeing only 12 pitches over the course of the at-bats.
The Rangers offense was particularly weak in the first inning last year, scoring just 78 runs, 24th in the majors. They’ve had multi-run first innings twice in the last three days. They had just eight games with three or more first-inning runs in 2025, half of them over the final two months of the season.
— Ezequiel Duran homered to the top of the centerfield berm off Cubs starter Cade Horton in the fourth. This is notable because it was the first time Duran had homered in a Rangers uniform since Sept. 8, 2024. Between regular season and spring training at-bats, his dry spell lasted 338 at-bats.
Though Cam Cauley has outperformed him in spring, Duran is likely the Rangers utility man to start the year unless the club were to go outside the organization. But his margin for error might be very large He’s going to have to perform when given a chance. The Rangers have been dying to see him hit the ball with some authority. Perhaps Tuesday was a sign of things to come.
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