deGrom expects to make next start despite left leg/hip issue
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ARLINGTON -- Jacob deGrom battled through five innings and 80 pitches in the Rangers’ 8-3 win over the Angels on Tuesday night.
He likely would have gone deeper if not for a nagging ailment that hindered his throwing. Manager Skip Schumaker said postgame that deGrom was dealing with a left “hip/leg thing”, and the Rangers didn’t want to push him beyond the five innings.
deGrom added that he felt the “hip/leg thing” in between starts and that it lingered as he got deeper into Tuesday's game. He said that it’s a sensation that he's experienced before between starts, but it’s usually fine by the next time he takes the mound.
“This week, it kind of lingered,” deGrom explained. “We worked on it in between, like we normally had. It just kind of lingered. I felt it when I was out there. I felt it when I was warming up and cut my warmups a little short, because I was like, ‘Hey, I feel like there's no reason to keep pushing this. Let's just go pitch in the game.’ I wanted to go out there and go as long as I could. After the fifth, it was tightening up and we decided, 'This is probably enough.'”
deGrom is not worried that it’ll hinder his next start.
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“I think I'll be fine,” he said. “I think we'll manage in between. Honestly, I think sometimes off-days make you feel a little funny. I think we'll stay on top of it this week, and I think I'll be good to go.”
deGrom allowed two runs in the first inning of the Rangers’ win, but locked down to limit the Angels to just four baserunners over the remainder of his outing. Those runs raised his first-inning ERA to 9.50 (19 earned runs in 18 frames) in 2026, as 19 of his 39 runs allowed this season have come in the first inning (48.7%).
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“The first inning, it's frustrating,” deGrom said. “I said it before, I gotta do a better job in the first inning. I put us in a hole, but our lineup did a good job of battling back, scoring a couple, ultimately scoring enough to win a baseball game. That's the main goal. But for me, I gotta stop giving up runs in the first inning, stop putting us in a hole and do a better job in the first.”