Rangers
AD
6, A’s 2
- Jacob deGrom continues to amaze.
- Jacob deGrom gave up a home run to Lawrence Butler to start the game. He allowed just two hits and one walk after that, in six innings.
- How good was deGrom? He threw just 86 pitches, but still generated 28 swings and misses.
- 28 swings and misses! In 86 pitches! Almost a third of the pitches he threw resulted in whiffs!
- deGrom’s game against the A’s tied MacKenzie Gore’s performance on April 19 of this year for the second most whiffs in a single game in 2025. Tarik Skubal generated 32 whiffs on May 9.
- deGrom generated 10 swings and misses on his fastball, 11 on his slider, and seven on his changeup. Other than one curveball, fastball/slider/change is all deGrom threw. And that’s all he needs.
- deGrom has a 2.28 ERA on the season. In his last 17 starts, he has a 2.00 ERA in 103.2 IP, with 109 Ks against just 19 walks.
- He’s a freak and a future Hall of Famer and we are fortunate to get to watch him play for our Texas Rangers.
- The rest of the game...eh. Luke Jackson gave up a pair of two out hits in the seventh, with the Rangers up just 2-1, to make us nervous, but he got Luis Urias to fly out to end the inning. Robert Garcia in the eighth gave up a run due to his botching a comebacker, issuing a walk, and allowing a single, but the Rangers had scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh so it didn’t matter. Shawn Armstrong struck out three in the ninth and allowed a single, allowing us to argue about whether he struck out the side.
- Ho hum.
- The Rangers spent much of the game not being able to do much against J.T. Ginn, which is frustrating. Adolis Garcia homered off of him in the fourth to tie the game up, which at least allowed for some easier breathing as we no longer had to be concerned about losing a deGrom start 1-0.
- Marcus Semien banged one off the foul pole in left to give the Rangers the lead in the sixth. Then in the seventh, as alluded to above, four runs scored, with Josh Jung, Kyle Higashioka and Josh Smith singling, and then Corey Seager coming through with the most momentum-shifting play in baseball to turn a close game into a not-close game.
- Seager homered off of someone named Hogan Harris, who does not sound like a real person.
- Corey Seager is continuing to rake and Kyle Higashioka is slashing .362/.367/.596 in the month of July, and so a shift in allocation of playing time behind the plate may be nigh.
- Or at least, it would maybe be nigh but for the fact Higashioka had to leave the game with hamstring tightness. One would expect that Tucker Barnhart is on his way to Arlington right now, although Cody Freeman having caught for several years in the minors (though not since 2023) might allow the Rangers to wait until after Thursday’s off day to make a decision on whether to i.l. Higashioka.
- Barnhart is not on the 40 man roster, so a 40 man roster spot would have to be opened up for him, and Jon Gray is also going to need a 40 man roster spot when he is activated, which could be Wednesday or could be Friday, so there’s some potential complications there.
- But enough with this injury talk. The Rangers won, Jacob deGrom was awesome, and the Rangers are just a game and a half back in the Wild Card race.
- Jacob deGrom’s fastball topped out at 98.8 mph, averaging 97.4 mph. Luke Jackson hit 94.2 mph with his fastball. Robert Garcia’s fastball maxed out at 95.9 mph. Shawn Armstrong touched 94.7 mph with his sinker.
- Corey Seager had a 109.8 mph double and a 102.1 mph home run. Kyle Higashioka had a 108.8 mph single and a 100.2 mph line out. Adolis Garcia had a 108.0 mph home run. Rowdy Tellez had a 105.9 mph single. Marcus Semien had a 100.9 mph home run.
- Now let’s see about busting out Herbie and sweeping those shit-ass A’s.
