Jacob deGrom Seeks Second Texas Rangers Win

Jacob deGrom makes his third Texas Rangers start Tuesday one game after Andrew Heaney set a team record for strikeouts against the Kansas City Royals.

Jacob deGrom will make his third start for the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, one day after Andrew Heaney broke a team record for strikeouts held by Nolan Ryan.

It was just six days ago that deGrom struck out 11 Baltimore Orioles in a 5-2 victory. Monday’s 11-2 victory over Kansas City (3-8) gives the Rangers (6-4) a chance to win their second series of the season.

First pitch for the second game of the series is 7:05 p.m. at Globe Life Field.

Heaney’s incredible Monday night — he struck out eight Royals in a row to break Ryan’s team record of seven — gives deGrom something to shoot for, though he needs little motivation after his first two outings.

deGrom (1-0, 5.59 ERA) has struck out 18 of the 39 hitters he’s faced so far this season. It tied him for second-most strikeouts by a Rangers pitcher in their first outings in their debut season. Ryan had 23 in 1989 and Jamie Moyer had 18 in 1989.

deGrom’s 11-strikeout game against Baltimore wasn’t a rarity either. It was the 59th double-digit strikeout game of his career, which tied him with David Cone for 16th-most in the modern era of baseball (since 1901).

The Rangers would love another efficient outing from deGrom, too. Against the Orioles he threw 92 pitches, and he became the third pitcher in team history to record at least 11 strikeouts in just 92 or fewer pitches.

He joined Yu Darvish in 2016, against Kansas City (11 strikeouts on 91 pitches) and Matt Perisho in 1999, against the Los Angeles Angels (12 on 78).

His last performance put his slow start to Spring Training in the rear-view, as he was shut down early due to left side tightness and required most of the exhibition season to ramp up for Opening Day.

Tuesday will be deGrom’s third meeting with the Royals. The first meeting was in the 2015 World Series when deGrom started Game 2 for the New York Mets. He took the loss, throwing five innings and giving up six hits, four runs and three walks while striking out just two hitter.

The other meeting was in the 2019 regular season. deGrom won that game as he went seven innings, giving up three hits, one run and two walks while striking out five.

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