In sports, you’re only as good as your last game. In baseball, you might be only as good as your last hit, your last pitch, or your last at-bat. And in the case of ace MLB hurler Jacob deGrom, he’ll want to forget about this Opening Day.
What was set to be an afternoon of fanfare and excitement in Dallas for their prized star’s debut quickly turned sour. The Philadelphia Phillies romped all over their old nemesis deGrom, pitching proudly now for the Texas Rangers.
The Phillies chased deGrom so quickly, he didn’t even make it to four innings! His final line was 3.2 innings pitched, 6 hits, 5 earned runs, no walks, and seven strikeouts.
Jacob deGrom's final line:
3.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 7 K pic.twitter.com/0Po6V6QQGY
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 30, 2023
The high strikeout number isn’t a surprise from the hard-throwing deGrom. He’ll typically rack those up in bunches. This was one of deGrom’s worst Opening Day starts ever though. In the previous three, he only gave up a combined nine hits and zero earned runs.
Everyone gets about 20 starts to their name, at least, so Jacob deGrom will have plenty of time to bounce back. It’s certainly not the start he or the high-powered Rangers wanted, but the one they have to live with on Opening Day 2023.
The MLB world was ready to tee off on the poor performance from the former Cy Young Award winner.
ERA of 12.27 is too high and got cut off just like Jacob deGrom pic.twitter.com/LgTK4uSQUA
— Donovan Vogel (@Donnie_BROgel) March 30, 2023
— Jaiden Scherr (@jaidenascherr) March 30, 2023
EVEN HIS ERA GOT BIGGER IN TEXAS LMAOOO
— ramado (we back) (@TAT1SSZN) March 30, 2023
Clown got lit up like the NYE ball https://t.co/cFEXintdxw
— d. (@_312DARIUS) March 30, 2023
— William deVry (@WilliamdeVry1) March 30, 2023