Rangers' Jacob deGrom gets another crack at Mariners in series opener

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In one way, Jacob deGrom is not where he wants to be: Throwing late-season innings for a defending champion Texas Rangers team that is well out of playoff contention.

In another way, he's in the only place he wants to be: Throwing pitches at all, and finally -- again -- on the mound at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

That's where deGrom will be Friday night at the start of Texas' opener of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners. It will be his first home start since April 28, 2023, against the New York Yankees.

DeGrom, a 36-year-old right-hander, two-time Cy Young Award winner, and prized free-agent signing ahead of the 2023 season, is working back from his second-career Tommy John surgery early last season. He missed a World Series run and most of Texas' underwhelming campaign this year.

DeGrom made his 2024 debut last Friday in Seattle against the same Mariners squad he'll face this Friday. He went 3 2/3 innings, allowed no runs, four hits and no walks, and he plunked one batter while striking out four in a 61-pitch no-decision that included 41 strikes.

While he would have liked to have gone deeper into the game, deGrom said, "It was awesome. You spend that much time away from the game, you go through that whole process of building back up, and to get back on a major league mound was very nice."

The performance was vintage deGrom. He touched 98 mph but said he'd spend time before his next start fine-tuning his stuff after throwing primarily fastballs.

"The last thing I'm trying to figure out is my slider," said deGrom, who is 1-1 with a 1.62 ERA in three career appearances (all starts) vs. the Mariners. "It's not as consistent as it normally is."

At least he'll face familiar hitters, though the Mariners won three of four games against Texas (73-80) last week, including 5-4 last Friday in the game deGrom started.

The next night, Randy Arozarena hit a walk-off, bases-loaded single in a 5-4 win against Texas, and he followed that on Sunday with 20th homer of the year in a 7-0 victory.

Seattle (78-75) is only two games out of the final American League wild-card spot after avoiding a three-game sweep at home against the Yankees with a 3-2 win on Thursday. The Mariners scored all of their runs in the first and held on as Andres Munoz earned his 22nd save of the season.

"A great win this afternoon, and one we needed," Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. "Now we're going into Texas. We got a nine-game sprint here. We're going to do what it takes each night to win a ballgame."

George Kirby (12-11, 3.62 ERA) will start against deGrom on Friday. Kirby just threw seven innings of one-hit ball with three strikeouts in the 7-0 win against Texas on Sunday, and the 26-year-old right-hander is 6-0 with a minuscule 0.92 ERA in eight career starts against Texas.

He'll face an inconsistent Rangers offense that ranks in the bottom third of the majors with 4.17 runs per game, though so does Seattle, averaging 4.08.

Outside of a 13-hit, 13-run outburst in a win against Toronto on Tuesday, Texas has only eight hits and two runs in three of its last four games and has been shut out twice, once by Seattle.

"You're going to have them occasionally, but ... we've had too many of these days where we've been shut down completely," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays on Thursday. "That's not a good thing. Let's be honest here."

--Field Level Media