This story was originally published by Dead Spin
The six starts Jacob deGrom made last season were enough to help the Texas Rangers win the World Series for the first time ever.
The Rangers and deGrom hope his third and final start of this season will provide evidence he’s ready to help Texas mount another playoff push next year.
deGrom will take the mound Friday night when the Rangers visit the Los Angeles Angels in the opener of a three-game, season-ending series in Anaheim, Calif.
The right-handed deGrom (0-0, 1.35 ERA) is slated to oppose left-hander Reid Detmers (4-8, 6.67).
Both teams played in noteworthy road losses Thursday afternoon.
The Rangers fell to the Oakland Athletics, 3-2, in the final game played at the Oakland Coliseum. The Chicago White Sox staved off their record-setting 121st defeat by beating the Angels, 7-0, to complete a three-game sweep.
Any hopes of a title repeat ended weeks ago for the Rangers (75-84), who will become the first reigning World Series champion to finish with a sub-.500 record in a full season since the Boston Red Sox went 71-91 following their 2013 title.
The Rangers made the playoffs as a wild card by two games last season, when they won all six of deGrom’s starts before he underwent the second Tommy John surgery of his career on June 12, 2023. Texas mounted its title defense largely without the two-time Cy Young Award winner, who didn’t debut this season until Sept. 13.
deGrom has thrown a total of 6 2/3 innings and walked one while striking out nine in his two starts. He didn’t factor into the decision Sept. 20, when he gave up one run over three innings in the Rangers’ 8-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
“Good stuff, it was a good outing for him,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said, “He’s just going to get stronger and stronger and even better with stuff and command.”
deGrom won his lone start against the Angels on May 19, 2017, after tossing seven scoreless innings for the New York Mets in a 3-0 victory.
The Angels (63-96) assured themselves of finishing with the worst record in franchise history Thursday, when they became just the second team this season to be swept by the White Sox (39-120).
The 1968 California Angels went 67-95 while the 1980 club finished 65-95. The last-place finish in the AL West will be the first for Los Angeles since 1999.
The Angels — who lost defending AL MVP Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers via free agency last fall before franchise icon Mike Trout was limited to 29 games by a knee injury — posted a winning record in just one month this season. They are 27-49 since going 15-11 in June.
“It’s pretty sickening,” Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe said. “Going into the spring and expecting things to turn around, and then this happens. We’ve got a good group in here and it doesn’t feel like what the record shows. But the record is what it is. I don’t think anyone’s OK with it in here.”
Detmers took the loss last Saturday after allowing seven runs over two innings as the Angels fell 10-4 to the Houston Astros. He is 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA in nine career starts against the Rangers.
–Field Level Media
