deGrom K's 5 in long-awaited return to Globe Life Field

ARLINGTON -- Jacob deGrom gave himself a C after his first start of the 2024 season, when he threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings in Seattle. No matter how good the Rangers ace appears, he has high standards for himself.

deGrom made his second start of the season on Friday night, once again against the Mariners, this time at Globe Life Field as the Rangers opened their final home series with an 8-2 loss. It was his first start at home since April 28, 2023, when he threw 3 2/3 one-hit innings against the Yankees before leaving with the forearm soreness that would eventually lead to the UCL surgery that kept him sidelined for 18 months.

Against the Mariners on Friday, deGrom threw three innings, allowing one run on a solo homer from Seattle nine-hole hitter Josh Rojas. He struck out five batters and walked just one.

“Jacob, he was good,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “They fouled a lot of balls off, the pitches caught up to where we were going to take him. So good stuff, it was a good outing for him. He’s just going to get stronger and stronger and even better with stuff and command. It's hard to get much better, though. He did a great job.”

It wasn’t perfect, but deGrom said he felt like he could upgrade a little bit more from the C grade he gave himself the first time out.

“I felt like my stuff was good,” deGrom said. “My changeup was good. I landed one curveball, it was a foul ball to [Justin] Turner. Like, I said I was able to throw all four pitches and felt good with them. So that's a huge plus.”

• With surgery in the rearview, Seager (hernia) looks forward to '25

He started the night off hot with a three-pitch strikeout of Victor Robles, but there was a bit more traffic this time out than in his first start in Seattle. He settled in mostly, allowing just the one run, though he didn’t come back out for the fourth inning.

Bochy said pregame that deGrom was expected to be right around 60 pitches for the second start in a row. He threw 58, with 37 going for strikes. His four-seamer averaged 97.6 mph and topped out at 99.4 mph, slightly up from his first start.

“I noticed in the first start, I was -- I call it, running away from my arm -- so my head starts going towards first, and then my stuff's not as sharp when I do that,” deGrom explained. “I did it with runners on tonight. I feel like that's why I lost a little command with runners on. It's little things that I got to continue to work on. But all in all, my arm felt good, and that was the most important part.”

deGrom, to no surprise, was fastball-slider heavy in his outing, though he mixed in four changeups and three curveballs.

One thing that has remained consistent throughout deGrom’s rehab process is the development of his slider. He threw 23 of them on Friday, and got three whiffs on 10 swings. He said postgame that while it felt better out of the hand, the pitch is still a work in progress.

“It was better,” deGrom said. “The ones that I actually throw like my fastball are good, and the ones that I try to do too much and start pulling to the first base side, those are the ones that spin. It's just going to be getting reps and trusting my delivery. It's easier said than done.

“You get out there and you try, like, ‘Oh, I gotta make this one nasty.’ That’s trying to do too much. Those are the ones that tend to spin in the middle. It’s gonna be getting reps and keep trying to go back out there and trust my stuff.”

deGrom is expected to make one more start this season as a final tuneup for a fully healthy and normal offseason. The goal for his last time out is simply to go further than his first two.

“Tonight, I wanted to at least get four or five innings,” deGrom said. “But, you know, three 20-pitch innings isn’t ideal. So I want to try to be a little bit more efficient, and try to get up there in pitch count, or go out there for a fifth inning. That would be the goal, hopefully somewhere between five and 75. That's the goal. They did a good job of battling me today and fouled stuff off and getting my pitch count up.”