Red-hot Cubs bats stopped cold against vintage deGrom

ARLINGTON -- There are days when an opposing pitcher simply has a team’s number. Cubs fans were plenty familiar with Jacob deGrom doing that against their team during his prime, but Sunday was something of a turn-back-the-clock performance.

The North Siders boast one of baseball’s best offenses, but the group could get little going against deGrom in a 3-0 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field. In fact, the hard-throwing righty pieced together one of the best singular outings of the year to date against this National League Central-leading Cubs team.

The Cubs headed into the afternoon with the lowest strikeout rate (19.9%) as a team in the NL, but were punched out 10 times by deGrom. That matched a season high for a pitcher against Chicago, equaling Emmet Sheehan’s showing on April 24 for the Dodgers. deGrom generated 22 whiffs, marking the most swinging strikes by a pitcher against the Cubs in ‘26.

As it happens, that April set in Los Angeles was the last time the Cubs lost a series prior to this trip to Arlington. Chicago’s 6-0 loss on Saturday snapped a 10-game winning streak for the ballclub, which has gone 20-5 in its last 25 games.

The dominance from deGrom in his seven frames was especially on display against Cubs rookie Moisés Ballesteros, who is known for his strong bat-to-ball skills. The 22-year-old designated hitter saw 10 fastballs from deGrom and swung at eight of them. He whiffed on every single swing.

Nico Hoerner did what he could to spark a couple rallies, but nothing came to fruition. The second baseman lined a leadoff double in the fourth -- only to watch deGrom strike out two of the next three batters to escape. Hoerner singled and stole second with two outs in the sixth, but then deGrom fanned Ballesteros to halt that opportunity.

Cubs starter Jameson Taillon did what he could to hold the line, limiting the damage to one run in his 5 1/3 innings. Texas’ lone breakthrough arrived in the fourth, when Josh Jung singled to left and later crossed the plate on a fielder’s choice grounder off the bat of Alejandro Osuna.

With Jung on third, Osuna chopped a pitch from Taillon to Cubs first baseman Michael Busch, who gloved the ball and fired to catcher Carson Kelly. The tag from Kelly arrived around the same time as Jung getting a foot to the plate, and the safe call was upheld after a Cubs challenge and lengthy replay review.