Rangers squander deGrom's 12-K gem in bid for 1st road series win since break

SEATTLE -- All the work Jacob deGrom did was flushed down the drain in just 10 pitches.

The Rangers’ ace was perfect through his first five innings against the Mariners on Thursday afternoon, cruising to 10 strikeouts before he even allowed a baserunner. Seattle’s first hit was on a Cole Young comebacker that bounced off deGrom’s glove into no-man’s land behind the mound.

deGrom completed six scoreless innings, facing just one over the minimum and collecting a season-high 12 strikeouts, the most of his Rangers tenure. He exited the game with Texas leading by three runs.

But that lead, and a potential Rangers win, evaporated quickly.

Reliever Jakob Junis entered in the seventh inning to face the heart of Seattle’s lineup. He faced four hitters, and all of them came around to score, capped by Julio Rodríguez’s go-ahead three-run homer. Junis did not record an out as the Rangers ultimately fell, 4-3, in the rubber game at T-Mobile Park.

“Definitely feels like you let the team down on multiple levels,” Junis said postgame. “Not only did we lose, but Jacob went out there and had a terrific game. Just a vintage deGrom start; it couldn't have been any better. And then for it to fall apart in one inning like that, and for it to be your fault, it sucks. No way to sugarcoat it at all. It sucks in every single way.”

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said that deGrom was dealing with groin tightness through much of his start, with the issue originally cropping up when he ran to cover first on a ground ball in the fourth inning. That’s why Schumaker and a trainer made a mound visit in the sixth, and that’s also why deGrom didn’t come back out for the seventh with 92 pitches (64 strikes).

deGrom said he’s not overly concerned with the groin being a lingering issue.

“I felt good early on,” deGrom said. “I was able to locate the ball well. When my groin tightened up in the fourth, I told them I was good to keep going. After the sixth, we were like, ‘Do we push here?’ Ultimately the decision was made to come out. I wanted to give the team a chance to win, and unfortunately, we weren't able to do that today.”

Texas has not won a road series since before the All-Star break, when it swept a four-game set in Toronto before taking two of three in Cleveland from June 25-July 1.

The Rangers (72-75) also could not take advantage of an opportunity to gain ground in the American League Wild Card race, with both the Blue Jays (73-74) and Guardians (74-73) sitting idle on Thursday. Texas fell to three games behind Houston (75-72) in the AL West.

“Win tomorrow,” Schumaker said. “That's how you get [momentum] back. That's that. There's only one way to go. We're going to feel this one. There's no doubt. Going to feel it for probably the rest of the night, and then you're going to have to flush it right away when we get to land in Arizona. That's just part of being a big leaguer.

“We go to Arizona. We try to win the first game. …The only thing you can do is be upset for another eight hours and then figure out Arizona.”