SURPRISE, Ariz. — Right-hander Jacob deGrom made his major league spring debut and Texas Rangers fans are rejoicing. They had waited a while for this.
First, deGrom injured his side in late February which pushed his debut back, and then his first time facing live hitters happened against Kansas City Royals minor leaguers at their shared Spring Training complex last Monday and it wasn’t televised.
On Sunday, deGrom faced the Seattle Mariners and for three innings, he showed why the Rangers went out and got him in the offseason. Unfortunately for Rangers fans, the best they could do was look at highlights because that game also wasn’t televised.
Host Brice Paterik of the Locked On Rangers podcast discussed deGrom’s outing on the latest episode of his show and joked about not being able to actually see it.
Paterik said, “He looked absolutely incredible. It’s a darn shame that there were no camera crews there to, you know, film the whole thing. Just a few highlights which I’m grateful for.”
deGrom threw three scoreless innings with four strikeouts and only allowed two hits. His fastball was consistent and ranged from 97-99 while he hit 100 mph twice in those three innings. He threw 34 pitches and 28 of them were strikes. He also worked around a triple in the first inning by striking out the next two batters. And he also stranded a runner on base in the third after a single.
deGrom spoke to reporters after the game and said, “I felt like I threw the ball well,” deGrom added, “Whether it’s spring or during the season, the goal is to try to put up zeros. So that's what I was trying to do out there today. The second batter of the game, I gave him a triple and I'm like, ‘OK, let's leave him there.’ That's what I was trying to do. It was good to be in a real game and have to bear down there and make pitches.”
Catcher Mitch Garver who came over to the Rangers from Twins caught deGrom for the first time and said deGrom lived up to the hype.
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