{"id":30419,"date":"2025-05-16T03:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T03:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/30419\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T03:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T03:42:12","slug":"jacob-degrom-introduces-himself-to-astros-silver-boot-series-with-masterclass-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/30419\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob deGrom introduces himself to Astros, Silver Boot series with masterclass performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 The Texas Rangers signed Jacob deGrom 30 months ago<\/a> with the intent he\u2019d stare down the Houston Astros and anchor a playoff rotation. <\/p>\n

He finally checked the first box on Thursday. Sure does bode well if he gets a chance at the second this season, too.<\/p>\n

Facing off against the Astros for the first time, not just as a Ranger, but ever, deGrom outdueled Hunter Brown, who has graded out as the top starter in the majors through the first two months of the season in a 1-0 win. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

It was the Rangers\u2019 sixth straight win, their longest streak of the season, and it jumped them ahead of the Astros in the AL West to start a four-game series on what MLB has deemed \u201cRivalry Weekend\u201d throughout the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a game, just terrific to be a part of,\u201d said Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who just as easily could have been referencing passing Sparky Anderson for sixth on the all-time managerial wins list. <\/p>\n

But he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacob is one of the best ever in this game with incredible stuff, command and his competitive nature,\u201d Bochy continued. \u201cHe knew this was an important game, a big game and who were going against. So, yeah, he was locked in. He\u2019s always locked in. But, yeah, he was as locked in as any start of his I\u2019ve seen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Just reciting deGrom\u2019s final line – eight scoreless innings on five hits, a walk and seven strikeouts – doesn\u2019t seem quite enough to get the message across that this was vintage deGrom. Maybe this does: It was the first time, he\u2019d gone more than seven innings since a shutout of Washington in the first month of 2021. <\/p>\n

And he used his slider like days of old. He threw 50 of them among his 96 pitches. It was the most he\u2019s thrown of the pitch since 2020. All season, deGrom has been heavy on self-criticism of the pitch, but in the last two starts against Detroit and on Thursday, he\u2019s ramped the usage up significantly. <\/p>\n

Look, on the other side, Brown was all that. Entering the game with a 1.48 ERA and a 2.1 WAR, he didn\u2019t allow a baserunner through four innings. But deGrom was better. <\/p>\n

He threw first-pitch strikes to eight of the nine hitters the first time through the order, putting Houston on the defensive. That\u2019s never a good spot to be against deGrom. By the time the eighth rolled around, deGrom, at 88 pitches, needed just eight more to set the Astros down. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was able to locate pretty well tonight, so that makes it a little easier to look locked in,\u201d deGrom said. \u201cBut, yeah, you definitely want to go out there and beat these guys. They are our rival. They are who we want to beat. And we\u2019ve got three more games against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

True, that. But, for a change, it looks like the Rangers have the edge in starting pitching. Thanks to deGrom\u2019s night, the Rangers now have the AL\u2019s lowest rotation ERA (2.89). Consider the difference from the last eight seasons in which Houston, on the ways to seven AL West and two World Series titles, had the third best rotation ERA in baseball and the Rangers the third worst. <\/p>\n

And while the Astros started their ace on Thursday, good as deGrom has been this season, he only has graded out as the No. 3 starter thus far. Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle, who start the next two games, both have ERAs in the ones. The first three starters in the series for the Rangers entered the night with a composite 1.95 ERA this season. The reason for singling out three pitchers in a four-game series? The significance of what that would mean for a team in a five- or seven-game playoff series.<\/p>\n

DeGrom got the offensive help he needed from Jake Burger, he of the \u201cnew pope, new me,\u201d mantra<\/a>, who led off the bottom of the sixth with a homer to right center on a cutter that never really drifted away from him. It was the second consecutive night Burger had a big hit to right center. His two-run double on Wednesday broke up the finale against Colorado. A devout Catholic, he\u2019d given his teammates a little papal wave from second and later said he\u2019d taken some inspiration from Pope Leo XIV, a Midwesterner like himself. <\/p>\n

The other assist came from the outfield defense, in particular Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a>, who made a sliding, tumbling catch to his left, a running catch in the alley and combined perfect positioning with a fabulous read to snare Mauricio Dub\u00f3n\u2019s sinking liner with another sliding catch to end the seventh. It underscored what has been evident early this season, that the Rangers\u2019 defense has been elite. We don\u2019t know about you, but we\u2019ve heard defense wins championships.<\/a><\/p>\n

It also underscored Garc\u00eda\u2019s continued torment of the Astros, which even pre-dates his 2023 ALCS MVP. <\/p>\n

Asked: \u201cWhat is it with you and the Astros,\u201d Garcia winked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cYou know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:Texas Rangers 1B Jake Burger credits team\u2019s recent hot streak to new Pope Leo XIV<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>After latest blazing rotation turn, it\u2019s time to give Texas Rangers starters their flowers<\/a><\/p>\n

Jack Leiter\u2019s gem Tuesday night was just another night for the Rangers\u2019 starting rotation.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Jacob deGrom\u2019s gem in Detroit epitomizes Rangers\u2019 upside-down season to this point<\/a><\/p>\n

DeGrom had his best fastball velocity of the year, his filthiest slider and even a little bit of a sneer.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 The Texas Rangers signed Jacob deGrom 30 months ago with the intent he\u2019d stare down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,3321,139,54,3211,403,4,149,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-30419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bruce-bochy","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-astros","13":"tag-houstonastros","14":"tag-jacob-degrom","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-rangers","17":"tag-texas-rangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114515446675701726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}