On May 15th, 2014, Jacob deGrom made his MLB debut for the New York Mets in the Subway Series against the rival Yankees.

11 years to the day, deGrom took the bump for the Texas Rangers to make his first career start against the Astros in the Silver Boot Series.

Fittingly, deGrom turned in one of the many phenomenal starts he has had throughout the last 11 years.

deGrom fired eight innings of shutout baseball while striking out seven Astros in a 1-0 Rangers victory.

With eight innings pitched, tonight marked deGrom’s longest outing since April 23rd of 2021, when he threw a complete game shutout with the Mets.

Using mostly a fastball/slider mix, deGrom was able to fire four innings of less than ten pitches to work deep in the game.

On defense, several Rangers stepped up with huge plays, including Adolis Garcia making multiple sliding catches and Evan Carter running down a ball in the gap in the 5th.

“Probably my defense behind me,” deGrom said when asked what allowed him to get so deep in the game. “There was some early contact, Adolis making unbelievable plays out there, Evan, so they were swinging early, putting balls in play, and like I said, I had great defense behind me so early contact, normally you can stay in the game a little bit”.

“He’s one of the best ever, and now he’s healthy and you’re seeing it,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.

“He’s done this for a while, and the numbers they show he’s one of the best ever, but to see what this man’s doing right now, he’s right back on track, he’s healthy. I enjoy watching him, I’m a fan, and so it’s quite a game”.

Hearing those words of admiration from Bochy will always mean a lot to a player, but even more so on this night. With tonight’s win, Bochy passed Sparky Anderson for the 6th most wins as a manager in MLB history with 2,195.

The Rangers lone run of offense came when Jake Burger smacked a solo shot into the Rangers bullpen off Houston starter Hunter Brown in the 6th inning.

Brown would end up going toe to toe with deGrom, allowing just the one run in eight innings pitched.

“What a game,” Bochy said. “Everything we thought this game would be, runs would be at a premium, I didn’t know it would be one, but what a game Jacob threw and their guy [Brown,] he’s so tough too. Jake [Burger] got a hold of a ball there, and before the game I said it’s probably gonna take someone getting a hold of one to win this game, and so just a terrific game to be a part of”.

As for deGrom, he now has an ERA of just 2.29 on the season to go along with his 4 wins. In his last six starts, he has posted an ERA of just 1.49.

Now, it finally feels safe to say that deGrom is officially “back” after eclipsing the eight-inning and 96 pitch marks.

“Coming in, the goal is to just take the ball as much as I can and try to stay out on the field,” deGrom said. “Do what I can in between to get ready for the next one, and go out there and just try to pitch to my strengths.

“[When] you miss that much time, you really miss this game, you give a lot to play this and then you know having to, there is unknown but being able to come back and pitch some last year, that gave me a little piece of mind going into this season so I was able to prepare well this offseason and you know try to go out there as many times as they let me”.