6-20-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Back home after a long day yesterday that ended on a high note and the Pirates will host the Texas Rangers and Jacob deGrom, who makes his first start at PNC Park since a ho-hum dominant performance on September 7, 2022.
After missing most of his first two years with Texas due to needing Tommy John Surgery, deGrom is now all the way back. The newly-minted 37-year old is 6-2 with a 2.19 ERA through 82.1 innings with a 0.91 WHIP, which is very in-line with the career stats for the 2-time Cy Young winner.
deGrom is essentially just throwing two pitches: a high-90s 2-seam and a high-80s slider without a ton of deviation on location as he keeps the heater up and the slider running down and in against lefties – and he makes it work.
The fastball has been most effective against righties as they are batting just .169 against the pitch compared to .227 when facing the slider. Lefties, however, have had more success against the fastball (.229 batting average) and have been completely overwhelmed by the slider as they are hitting .167 against the pitch and whiffing at a 42.7% clip.
His ERA ranks 6th lowest in MLB with the 8th lowest BAA (.196) but he’s also gotten some luck go his way as his (-1.05) ERA-FIP is the 10th highest differential.
This is mostly bolstered by an 88.5% strand rate, which is significantly above his career norm of 79.7%, but not unsustainable given degrom’s proclivity for strikeouts and avoidance of walks (he is currently the MLB career leader in SO/BB at 5.37).
The series is not an easy matchup and, even if they get past deGrom tonight, the Rangers bullpen has been top 10 in baseball this season in nearly all statistical categories.
Just do your best today and we can see what happens with the Vandy boys the rest of the series.
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