SEATTLE - For five innings and the start of a sixth, Jacob deGrom made T-Mobile Park look empty.
The Rangers right-hander retired his first 15 batters Thursday and struck out 12, his highest total since 2022, before Julio Rodriguez's three-run homer off the Texas bullpen lifted the Seattle Mariners to a 4-3 win, the Associated Press reported. deGrom left with a 3-0 lead after six scoreless innings and one hit.
ESPN's box matches that line and lists no walks; the AP wire said he walked one. Either way, the outing ended early when manager Skip Schumaker pulled him for groin tightness, per the AP.
Cole Young's leadoff single in the sixth, a liner that glanced off deGrom's glove and died between the mound and second, was the only hit against him. He had struck out eight of his first nine for the fifth time in his career and needed just 92 pitches, 64 strikes, according to ESPN.
Perfect through five, then the exit
Logan Gilbert, another Stetson product, matched him for volume. Gilbert worked seven innings, allowed three runs on three hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts, and became Seattle's first pitcher with consecutive double-digit strikeout games since James Paxton in 2018. The starters' combined punchouts were the most by opposing starters in the majors this season, the AP noted.
Texas built the lead deGrom protected. Nicky Lopez singled in the third and scored on Joc Pederson's two-run homer to right-center. In the fifth, Evan Carter was hit by a pitch, stole second, took third on catcher Cal Raleigh's throwing error, and scored on Lopez's bunt single. That was the entire Texas offense: four hits.
Four-run seventh undoes it
Jakob Junis (1-3) never recorded an out in relief. He hit Randy Arozarena, allowed Dominic Canzone's RBI single and Raleigh's single, then watched Rodriguez drive a first-pitch sinker for his 21st home run, a three-run shot that flipped the score to 4-3.
