ARLINGTON — Jacob deGrom’s Month of Frustration has stretched into September.
The 37-year-old right-hander spent the bulk of August in search of both blame for the three Texas Rangers losses that he started and for a solution to his own individual struggles. The fact that his last five starts — in which he yielded a 3.38 ERA in 26 2/3 innings — might qualify as a career-best month for some pitchers is irrelevant to him.
On Aug. 25, after he fired five innings of two-run ball, deGrom lamented that he was “not able to throw the ball where I want.” Two starts prior, in a 6-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, he shouldered blame despite five scoreless innings. In a 3-2 loss vs. the Philadelphia Phillies Aug. 9, in which he allowed three runs, deGrom argued that the Rangers “lost the game” because of his inability to make big pitches.
On Saturday, after a blowout loss in which the team’s offense and bullpen could largely be considered more culpable of the defeat than he, the word “mistake” was deGrom’s self-critique of choice.
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“I felt fine,” deGrom said Saturday night. “I just made some mistakes and we lost the game.”
The Rangers lost 11-0 vs. the Houston Astros Saturday night at Globe Life Field in a duel between two of the American League’s best pitchers to even the second-to-last series between the two teams. Houston right-hander Hunter Brown, whose 2.25 ERA is the second-best in the AL, silenced a Rangers offense that once again stumbled with runners on base.
Oh, and the home team’s ace? He allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings before his team’s bullpen allowed eight more to inflate the Houston lead and create an even more insurmountable hill for a dormant offense to hike upward if it had any hope of a comeback.
“Hunter went out there and threw the ball well,” deGrom said, “and I just wasn’t able to match him.”
He allowed Houston’s first two runs to score on two pitches. He left a slider up in the zone vs. first baseman Christian Walker in the third inning and allowed a solo home run to straightaway center field. In the fifth, with two outs, left fielder Yordan Alvarez yanked a low-and-insider changeup 421 feet into left field for another solo home run.
Astros third baseman Carlos Correa led the sixth inning off with a single and, two batters later, designated hitter Victor Caratini walked on four pitches that weren’t particularly close to the strike zone. The Rangers replaced deGrom — whose 97 pitches were the most he’d thrown since Aug. 9 vs. the Phillies — with right-hander Cole Winn with two on and one out.
“The goal with pitching is eliminate your mistakes and hit your spots,” deGrom said. “Right now, when I make a mistake, I’m having to pay for it. The Yordan one, the Walker one, it’s just frustrating.”
Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom reacts as he heads to the dugout after pitching the top of the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros at Globe Life Field on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
Winn, who hadn’t pitched since Aug. 19 due to arm fatigue, got Walker to fly out before catcher Yainer Diaz doubled in a run to give Houston a 3-0 lead. It was the fifth time in his last seven starts that deGrom exited the game with the Rangers behind.
The two-time Cy Young award winner struck out eight batters, including the first three he faced in the first inning, but received little in terms of offensive support. The Rangers have averaged just 2.1 runs in deGrom’s last nine starts and forced the veteran to straddle a tightrope on the mound.
Their best opportunity to break through vs. Brown, an AL Cy Young contender, came when they loaded the bases with one out in the second inning. Second baseman Ezequiel Duran was called out on three pitches for the second out and shortstop Josh Smith flew out for the second.
The Rangers had a runner at second base in the third, fourth and fifth innings but couldn’t advance any. They were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position Saturday night and are 3 for 54 in those situations since Monday’s win against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Twitter: @McFarland_Shawn
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