Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom. (Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports)
Jacob deGrom has a bad habit of pitching shutouts and then leaving with injury. He did it again on Friday night for the Rangers against the Yankees.
The rollercoaster of emotions that is a Jacob deGrom pitching appearances only follows one track: It flies up or it zooms down.
That’s not because deGrom himself is inconsistent. In fact, when he’s on the mound, he’s usually rather in control. After a rough outing to begin his Rangers career, he managed to dip his ERA down to 3.04 going into Friday night’s action against the Yankees. Over the last four games, he’s throw 36 strikeouts with an ERA of 1.57.
And his numbers only improved on Friday with 3.2 scoreless innings and just one hit allowed.
The shutout was the upswing. The downswing? deGrom had to exit the game in the fourth inning with a trainer because of some sort of ailment.
This was the fifth time in his career he’s had to leave a shutout by the fourth inning or earlier and the second time in his last three starts.
Bruce Bochy told reporters after the 5-2 victory that deGrom was dealing with “forearm tightness” and that he would be evaluated further on Saturday.
Jacob deGrom is the king of shutout early exits
deGrom’s injury history marred the final years of his Mets career, no doubt contributing to New York letting him leave in free agency.
The Rangers signed him to a five-year, $185 million deal in hopes that he’d remain a dominant ace while getting a bit luckier on the injury front. And so far, he’s definitely looked like that force on the mound. It’s just that the injury luck hasn’t turned his way yet.
On the plus side, deGrom hasn’t suffered anything serious so far. His limited appearances in spring training and his early exits so far in the regular season have mostly been out of an abundance of caution. They’ve taken any soreness or tightness from deGrom very seriously.
Rangers fans just have to hope that’s the case this time as well.