A milestone sitting two batters away
Jacob deGrom pitches tonight against the Washington Nationals in the finale of a three-game series in Arlington, and he needs two strikeouts to reach 2,000 for his career. The number is not rare. The route he has taken to it is.
Thursday will be his 272nd career start. Randy Johnson holds the record for the fewest starts to 2,000 strikeouts at 262, and nobody else in the history of the sport has arrived that quickly. deGrom will slot in second on a list with very little company, at 38 years old, with two Cy Young Awards and a decade of interrupted seasons behind him.
The interruptions have not stopped. He left last Thursday’s start against the Los Angeles Angels after two innings with fatigue in his right triceps, charged with two runs on six hits in a 7-0 loss. Texas held him back, watched him throw a bullpen session on Tuesday, and cleared him. “It went well,” manager Skip Schumaker said.
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An August that has not gone his way
deGrom sits at 8-8 with a 3.95 ERA on the season, numbers that flatter neither him nor the run support behind him. August has been worse: 1-2 with a 6.97 ERA across three starts, 15 strikeouts and seven walks in 10 1/3 innings. The walk rate is the part that reads oddly for a pitcher of his profile.
Washington is a friendly opponent to face while sorting that out. deGrom is 10-4 with a 2.30 ERA in 23 career starts against the Nationals, one of the residual perks of nine seasons with the New York Mets.
Washington counters with left-hander Andrew Alvarez (2-4, 3.72), recalled in May and used in both roles since. His last three outings have been starts, and he is 0-1 with a 2.60 ERA in them. He gave up two runs on two hits over 5 2/3 innings in a 4-1 loss to the Mets on Friday. He has never faced Texas.
What the series has already shown
Texas took the opener 5-0. Washington answered 6-0 on Wednesday behind a three-run homer from Andres Chaparro, who has hit safely in four of his past five games, plus a Jose Tena homer and two more hits from Keibert Ruiz, batting .378 this month. The Rangers managed four hits and one walk all night, two of them from Corey Seager.
Texas trails Houston by two games in the American League West and sits half a game behind Minnesota for the final wild-card place. The margin for another short outing is thin.
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