Jacob deGrom achieved an impressive career benchmark while leading the Texas Rangers to a 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals. The 38-year-old ace allowed just one walk over six scoreless innings Thursday at Globe Life Field. He also tallied 10 strikeouts, fanning the game's first two batters.
Nationals first baseman Abimelec Ortiz struck out swinging in the first inning, giving deGrom his 2,000th career strikeout. He became the second-fastest pitcher in MLB history to reach that threshold in terms of both games played and innings pitched. The right-hander needed 272 games, trailing only Randy Johnson's 262.
His 1,661 innings place second to Chris Sale's 1,626. Despite appreciating the achievement, deGrom was more focused on pitching Texas to a victory amid a heated American League West race. "It was very cool,” deGrom said after the game, per MLB.com's Kennedi Landry.
"Obviously I've said it before, personal accomplishments are cool, but the goal is to win. The most important thing tonight was to go out there and put us in a position to win. I go out there and try to leave it all out on the field.
That’s how I've always played the game. If I can walk in here, if I can look myself in the mirror and say I gave 100%, then I can live with what happened. I'm proud of this accomplishment, but we've still got work to do as a team." DeGrom became the 94th pitcher to reach 2,000 career strikeouts, a milestone Kevin Gausman, Sonny Gray, and Aaron Nola have also hit this season.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner has 157 punchouts in 126.2 innings this season, but Thursday marked his first start with double-digit strikeouts since May 10. The moment came seven days after deGrom exited a game early with right triceps fatigue.
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