The start the Texas Rangers waited two weeks for did not go the way they drew it up. Jacob deGrom, making his first appearance since July 7 after a mild left glute strain pushed him out of the second-half opening series, allowed five runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings Monday night in a 10-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox, who rode the rout to hold their AL Central lead. With Seattle shutting out Cincinnati, Texas fell out of the AL West lead for the first time since taking it over on July 9 — the Rangers are 50-50, a half-game back.
deGrom had been cleared to start after a clean Saturday bullpen session, and the arm showed up: six strikeouts against two walks on 97 pitches. The results around the strikeouts did not. Chicago strung together seven hits against him, and the 4 2/3 innings were his shortest outing since May 22. The five earned runs were his most since June 19, and they came after a remarkably steady month — he had allowed exactly two earned runs in each of his previous three starts, working at least six innings in two of them. His ERA moved from 3.49 to 3.76, and he fell to 7-6.
One start after a layoff is not a health verdict, and deGrom took the ball on schedule and threw a full 97-pitch workload. But the timing stings. Texas has lost two straight since Saturday’s rally in Atlanta — the offense got solo homers from Jake Burger and Joc Pederson, the 17th for each, plus an Evan Carter RBI single and nothing else — and the division race is now a day-to-day proposition. The Mariners have won three straight while the Rangers dropped consecutive games to Atlanta and Chicago.
The August 3 deadline calculus doesn’t move on one bad night either. A front office that has signaled it will hold its stars and shop for bullpen help is making that bet largely because of what a healthy deGrom means to a playoff rotation. The next data point comes this weekend, when his turn comes back around.
For fantasy managers, this is a hold, not a panic. The strikeout stuff was intact in his first game action in two weeks, the glute issue was never described as arm-related, and a 3.76 ERA with 128 strikeouts in 105 1/3 innings still profiles as a top-15 starter. Treat Monday as the rust start and keep him in lineups.
