Jacob deGrom did not have a pain-free night at Globe Life Field, but he gave Texas five hard innings when the Rangers needed them most, and the bullpen made a 4-2 win over Boston stand up as the postseason chase tightened.
Key takeaways
- deGrom moved to 11-9 after striking out eight Red Sox hitters over five innings.
- Texas scored all four of its runs in the second inning against left-hander Patrick Sandoval.
- Jacob Latz collected his 30th save and finished a four-out assignment in the eighth and ninth.
- The Rangers gained a half-game on Toronto after the Blue Jays lost, though both teams remained two games behind Cleveland for the last AL Wild Card position.
- Texas has 12 regular-season games remaining, with nine of them scheduled at home.
deGrom fights through another short start
There was no hiding the issue for deGrom. The groin tightness that had limited his recent workload returned in the second inning, after he opened the game by retiring Boston in order.
He said the discomfort showed up after a fastball to Wilson Contreras leading off the second and lingered for the rest of the outing. Still, it did not intensify as the night went along, leaving deGrom hopeful that the club can manage it well enough for him to take the ball again on his normal five-day turn.
“It was there the rest of the game, but it didn’t get much worse,” deGrom said. “If we can keep it at that level, I think I can handle it and keep pitching.”
The right-hander allowed two earned runs on three hits and one walk, throwing 92 pitches with 53 strikes. His biggest moment came in the fifth, when Boston put runners aboard on the first two pitches of the inning. deGrom escaped the jam, preserved the lead and left the work for the relief corps.
It followed another abbreviated but effective outing in Seattle, where he threw six scoreless innings. His between-start preparation was especially light: during a Sunday bullpen session in Arizona, he threw only about 10 easy fastballs to test the mound before declaring himself available for Tuesday.
Manager Skip Schumaker saw a pitcher operating below full strength but refusing to back away from the assignment.
“He gave us all he had,” Schumaker said. “You could see he wasn’t at 100 percent, but he attacked their lineup and competed. That is all we can ask of him.”
deGrom said he would have attempted the sixth inning had the fifth gone more cleanly. Instead, Texas got the lead into the hands of a bullpen that had let one slip in his previous start.
Latz closes the door as Texas strikes early
The Rangers gave deGrom room to work with a four-run second against Sandoval. Elias Díaz lined a two-run double, then Corey Seager dropped a two-run blooper into left field to finish the inning’s damage.
Chase Silseth, Tyler Alexander and Robert Garcia handled the next seven outs after deGrom departed. Garcia then allowed a single and a walk in the eighth, prompting Schumaker to turn to Latz with the game tightening.
Latz got the final two outs of the inning, including a strikeout of pinch-hitter Andruw Monasterio, then returned for a scoreless ninth to nail down the win.
The save was No. 30 for Latz, his first season working as a closer. He is perfect in nine save chances since Aug. 7, and his 13 saves requiring at least four outs lead the Majors. No Rangers reliever had reached that many saves of 1 1/3 innings or longer since Tom Henke in 1993.
“Thirty is a nice number,” Latz said. “At the start of the year, I did not really set bullpen goals. My goals were tied to starting. Getting this opportunity to help win games in this role has been an honor.”
Schumaker noted that Latz’s four-out saves are rarely routine. The left-hander is commonly summoned with runners in scoring position and the tying run one hit away, rather than being handed a quiet inning.
“Those first outs are usually the toughest ones,” Schumaker said. “He comes in when the game is on the line, and a hit can cost us the lead. He has been outstanding every time.”
For Texas, that reliability matters as much as deGrom’s ability to keep answering the bell. The Rangers opened their final 12-game stretch with a win, and with nine home dates left on the slate, every inning deGrom can give them and every tense finish Latz can secure carries extra weight.
