Rangers Superstar Flirts With No-Hitter in Dominant Performance

Baltimore Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino put Texas Rangers ace Jacob deGrom’s flirtation with a no-hitter in perspective on Wednesday.

MLB.com reported that Mansolino and the Orioles have faced some no-hit bids recently. But the 36-year-old right-hander’s bid had a different feel.

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"I think tonight’s probably separate from the other ones,” Mansolino said. “Tonight’s all Jacob deGrom."

For all his credentials, deGrom has never thrown a no-hitter. deGrom dominantly carried one into the seventh inning as the Rangers (40-41) defeated the Orioles (34-46), 7-0, at Camden Yards.

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In fact, through six innings, deGrom had a perfect game, as he faced 18 straight hitters and sent each of them back to the dugout.

That bid ended in the seventh as he issued a walk to Orioles leadoff hitter Jackson Holliday. He retired the next two hitters before he walked Ryan O’Hearn. Then he induced a groundout from Gary Sanchez to end the seventh and keep the no-hitter intact.

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Baltimore’s Colton Cowser ended that bid in the eighth with a leadoff single. That prompted a pitching change for Texas, as Jacob Webb came in to hang onto the Rangers’ lead.

deGrom improved to 8-2 on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.08. He threw 89 pitchers, 59 of which were strikes. He struck out seven along with the two walks.

In a postgame interview with Victory+, catcher Jonah Heim paid deGrom perhaps the highest compliment he could.

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"That's the best I've ever seen him since he came over here,” Heim said.

deGrom spoke to reporters with his right shoulder iced down, which is a normal post-game routine for most pitchers. He said that the seventh inning likely would have kept him from finishing the game.

“The two walks kind of killed me,” he said. “That got my pitch count up, and you know we've been kind of sticking around the 80 [pitch] mark. So, it probably would have taken a lot of pitches to get six more outs.”

He tied a career high with 13 straight starts having allowed two or fewer runs. He set the franchise record for that mark in his last start.

deGrom had his second Tommy John surgery two years ago this month. He admits he’s having fun after two years of work to get back to where he was before the injury.

“When you miss that much time, you miss this a lot,” he said. “You really think about what you’ve done in my career and the goal was to try and come back and be as good as I was before the surgery.”

Mission accomplished, it would appear.

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