Jacob deGrom 'Not Thrilled' With Texas Rangers Debut

Staff ace Jacob deGrom had his worst Opening Day start in four tries, but the Texas Rangers offense picked him up.

ARLINGTON, Texas — On one hand, Jacob deGrom felt good. His new Texas Rangers teammates bailed him out of the worst Opening Day start of his career, scoring nine runs in one inning and beating the Philadelphia Phillies 11-7 on Thursday.

On the other, well, deGrom didn’t show up the way he wanted on his first day on the job.

‘I’m not thrilled with how I threw the ball,’ deGrom said. “I didn’t make pitches when I needed to.”

Entering the game, deGrom had been money on Opening Day. He made the start three straight seasons for the New York Mets from 2019-21. In those three games he threw 17 innings, gave up nine hits, no runs and four walks while striking outs 25. Batters hit .158 against him and he gave up just two extra-base hits.

In the first inning deGrom looked like that Mets starter. He struck out Trea Turner on three pitches. Kyle Schwarber flew out. Then he struck out J.T. Realmuto.

After that, things got sideways. He threw 73 pitches and gave up six hits and five runs (all earned) while striking out seven.

So, what happened?

“I went back and looked at some of the pitches that they hit and I felt like I threw them well, but they did a good job of battling,” deGrom said. “They hit some of those that were off the plate.”

The hits hurt. But the types of hits hurt, too. All six were for extra bases. It wasn’t like the Phillies were stringing singles together.

Alec Bohm homered two batters after Nick Castellanos doubled with one out in the second inning. Brandon Marsh and Turner hit back-to-back triples to lead off the third. Realmuto later doubled, but at least deGrom managed to strand him.

Bohm got to him again in the fourth with a one-out double. In fact, Bohm was the chief offender on Thursday. He went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs. He also took advantage of mistake pitches.

“The mistakes were mainly to Bohm, you know, and those were ones that were my fault,” deGrom said. “The other ones I felt like were good pitches.”

The upside is the six strikeouts. When deGrom had command, he was dominant. He’s still striking out more than a hitter an inning on Opening Day. Plus, no walks.

It’s not what deGrom wanted to have to build on. But he’s looking forward to the next start and pushing the pitch count to 90. He said he felt good after the start and that he had pitches left in the arm when he left the game.

Next time, he said, he just wants to pull his weight.

“There are days when the offense has a down day and I can pick them up,” deGrom said. “Today I had a down day and they picked me up. So that’s important. You’re all out there with the same goal in mind, to go out there every day trying to win.”

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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