deGrom in vintage form, but takes loss in pitchers' duel vs. Yamamoto

ARLINGTON -- It was an old school pitchers’ duel in the Rangers' 3-0 loss to the Dodgers at Globe Life Field on Friday night, with two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom taking the mound opposite one of baseball’s most electrifying young pitchers in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

The 36-year-old deGrom opened his night by allowing a leadoff home run to Dodgers infielder Tommy Edman. It briefly looked like the Rangers ace would be in for a long night.

Then deGrom locked in. He struck out a pair of former MVPs in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and got Teoscar Hernández to fly out to end the first inning.

“I pitch at my best when I'm down [in the zone],” deGrom said. “That's what I've struggled with so far this year. That [Edman homer] was a mistake up in the zone. That ball went over the fence, so I'm like, ‘Alright, let's go lock this in, get it down.’ Yamamoto was throwing the ball really well. And I was like, ‘Hey, that's all they get.’ And I tried to refocus and put up zeros and give us a chance to win.”.

deGrom cruised with relative ease afterwards, allowing just two more hits -- both of which were singles -- and one walk. He retired 20 of the final 23 batters he faced, delivering seven innings of one-run ball, marking his best and longest start since another seven-inning offering on April 11, 2023 against Kansas City.

He concluded his night by painting the corner with a 97.3 mph four-seamer against Dodgers catcher Will Smith, collecting his seventh strikeout of the night.

“His command is unbelievable,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Unflappable. He’s one of the best pitchers in the game. Tommy hit a homer, and after that, he sort of kept us at bay. We didn’t really even have an answer for him tonight.”

It was also the first time in deGrom’s Rangers tenure (since 2023) that he’s worked seven innings and allowed one or zero earned runs. He last accomplished the feat on Sept. 7, 2022 at Pittsburgh as a member of the Mets (seven shutout frames).

Unfortunately for the Rangers, the guy on the other side was just a bit better. Yamamoto tied his career high with 10 strikeouts across seven scoreless innings. deGrom has been backed with one-or-zero runs of support in three of his four games in 2025. His 4.24 run support average since 2018 was the fifth-lowest mark in MLB in that span (min. 700.0 IP) entering Friday's game.

“First of all, our guy was outstanding,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “Terrific job by Jacob. He had really good stuff tonight, good location. He did a really, really nice job. Their guy was tough on us. He got us to expand with two strikes quite a bit all night. That's unlike us. We did some chasing there. I thought this would be a low scoring game. That's what it was.”

But for deGrom, the long-story-short of it is that for all but one batter, he looked like the best version of himself, even if it wasn’t enough to secure a victory.

deGrom has been slightly out of sorts to start his 2025 campaign. Through his first three starts of the season, the right-hander had a 4.30 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP in 14 2/3 innings.

He struggled with his mechanics as his fastball command eluded him. Even when the results were there at times, the process didn’t feel quite right to him. He just never collected his rhythm.

It’s not perfect yet, he said. There were still times throughout the night where he felt himself flying open, especially in the deep counts. But each time, he was able to lock it back in.

There’s still work to be done. But tonight was a step forward.

“I'm constantly trying to perfect it,” deGrom said. “This game is a game of adjustments. Hitters make adjustments to you, and you gotta keep making adjustments too. So the main thing is to be able to lock in my mechanics, and then that's when the location really starts to follow and I'm able to hit the spots more than not. Tonight was a step in the right direction.”