ARLINGTON — On June 19, 2015, then-Mets starter Jacob deGrom — turning 27 years old — turned over a quality start on his birthday against the Braves with 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball. His club lost.
On June 19, 2016, deGrom — turning 28 — turned over a quality start on his birthday against the Braves, this time allowing three runs over six innings in what also turned out to be a Mets defeat.
On Friday, deGrom celebrated his 38th birthday by taking the mound against the Padres at Globe Life Field, becoming the first pitcher in Senators/Rangers franchise history aged 38 or older to make a start for the club on his birthday. This time, deGrom did not make a quality start. He allowed six runs in six innings, also giving up the first grand slam of his career to Ty France in the first inning.
deGrom allowed just one run after the first, a solo homer from France in the fourth. But he then powered through with a season-high 106 pitches and limited damage afterwards, striking out nine.
And deGrom secured his first birthday win thanks to his offense going blow-for-blow with the Padres, putting up six runs in the bottom of the first inning and adding some insurance later to beat San Diego, 9-7, in the series opener.
Friday night marked the Rangers’ largest comeback win of the season, and their biggest since another five-run comeback on Aug. 11, 2025, against the Diamondbacks, when they trailed 5-0 after three innings but won, 7-6, in the 10th.
“Obviously I didn’t have a very good first inning,” deGrom said. “For [the offense] to come back and take the lead in the bottom of the first was big. Then I gave it back up, and then they got the lead again. So those guys did a great job of battling. I gotta do a better job in the first inning. That’s the end of the story there.”
After the first inning, deGrom held the Padres to 2-for-15 (.133), with both hits coming from France.
After France hit a two-out double in the sixth, manager Skip Schumaker came out to the mound, presumably to make a change. It was a quick visit. deGrom said something, obscured by his glove, and Schumaker about-faced quickly to return to the dugout. deGrom got Rodolfo Durán to fly out to end his evening.
“He looked at me in the dugout before I went out, like ‘I got this,’” Schumaker said. “I honestly debated on taking him out before the France at-bat. deGrom wanted to get through six innings, that’s for sure. After the tough start, I felt like he was really upset at himself in the first, and he made it a point to get through six. I wanted him to have it.”
The Rangers’ first-inning explosion came directly after they were outscored by a combined 9-0 in the opening frame during their three-game sweep at the hands of the Twins earlier this week. More often than not, Texas has been playing from behind lately.
On Friday, the club finally fought back.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Here we go again,’ and there’s definitely some doubt that that can creep in,” Schumaker said. “That’s human nature, I think. When you feel those feelings, you have to think about the direct opposite of that to combat it. It starts when the players come off the field with the guys that are on the bench and the guys that are not pitching that day to make sure that they know that you know we got nine more innings to hit with.”
Third baseman Josh Jung, who went 2-for-4 with a walk, said this exact situation was brought up in the hitters’ meeting ahead of Friday’s series opener. With the first-inning deficits becoming a pattern, how could it not?
The meeting was less about strategy in those situations and more about the emotional reactions to those deficits.
“The response to me was exactly what Skip was asking us to do — have some extra energy, especially the guys on the bench,” Jung said. “Just have good at-bats, don’t let it weigh on you, just go attack. …
“So I think what was going through my head was, ‘All right, this is basically Skip’s challenge to us.’ If this happened again, and it’s happening right now, it’s a good time to respond.”
This was the 16th time Texas starting pitchers have allowed more than one run in the first inning this season. This is the first time the Rangers have won one of those games.
And you know what? Maybe they can do it again sometime.
“It’s baseball, [falling behind] is gonna happen,” said Wyatt Langford, who homered in the eighth. “You can’t try harder, that never works. That makes it a lot worse. No one in here wants to give up whenever we’re down a bunch of runs.
“I would say the pitching has carried us a lot of the season. This is just a rough spot for them. It happens, it’s baseball, but for us to be able to pick up Jacob, our No. 1 pitcher, is awesome. We all really enjoyed it, and we’re glad we could do it.”
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