Jacob deGrom's near no-hitter was even better for the Rangers than fans thought

Texas Rangers fans know that Jacob deGrom returned to dominant form on Wednesday when -as Orioles writers put it - outclassed Baltimore on Wednesday night. The man whose talent has never been the issue but health always has been, nearly threw a no-hitter, taking it into the 8th inning before finally allow a weak base knock. However, how dominant he was might still be lost on people who watched him work.

Making his team-leading 16th start of the season, deGrom allowed just 1 hit and 2 walks over 7 scoreless innings, striking out 7. He faced one batter in the eighth, giving up a single to Colton Cowser, and was then pulled. deGrom knew how close he was later saying he told Cowser, “dang it, I wanted that.”

Jacob deGrom’s zero-barrel clinic cements his Cy Young case for the Texas Rangers

1 hit, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts is impressive on its own, but how the Texas Rangers ace dominated the O’s is even more eye-opening. According to Twitter account Pitch Profiler, the hurler needs to change his name from Jacob deGrom to Jacob deGoat after Wednesday’s outing thanks in no small part to the fact that he allowed a 0% barrel rate.

That, of course, means even the one hit was not something that Cowser squared up to. That was evident to the naked eye, and now backed up with science. 

Of course, deGrom has been limiting anything resembling hard contact all season long. His 8-2 record and just 2.08 ERA are absolutely Cy Young worthy, but all the numbers behind the scenes show a pitcher that is even more dominant than those traditional stats show.

deGRom’s Baseball Savant page is just one impressive number after another:

• +24 Pitching Run Value (99th percentile)
• +10 Fastball Run Value (95th percentile)
• +12 Breaking ball Run Value (100th percentile)
• 97.2 Average fastball velo  (91st percentile)
• 32.8% chase rate (89th percentile)
• 29.7% whiff rate (78th percentile)
• 6.1% barrel rate  (79th percentile)
• 5.5 BB rate (89th percentile)

When Jacob deGrom first signed with the Texas Rangers, there was lots of talk about him being the second coming of Nolan Ryan. He’s certainly living up to that billing in 2025.