Jacob deGrom Gets 100th Career Win On His Son’s Third Birthday: Rangers Ace Reflects
Jacob deGrom does not do moments. He does outings. Five strong, eight strikeouts, four hits, see you in five days. That is his whole career.
This one was different.
The Rangers beat the Cardinals 2-1 on Monday, and deGrom finally got his 100th win after three failed attempts. The 37-year-old went five scoreless. The bullpen held. The lineup scratched out enough.
Then he said the line that turns this from a stat into a story.
“I’ll always remember that, getting my 100th win on his third birthday.” That was deGrom on his son Nolan turning three the same day he hit the milestone.
Hundred wins is a real club. DeGrom is now the 16th active pitcher to do it. He gets there with two Cy Young awards in his back pocket and a career that has been interrupted by elbows, lats, shoulders, and everything else a pitcher’s body can break. The fact that he made it back to a hundred is its own argument that he is one of the toughest aces of his generation.
The bigger conversation is what comes next. DeGrom is healthy. He is striking guys out at a rate that says his stuff is intact. The Rangers are 39-21 and chasing the AL West, and their ace just got over a personal hurdle that had been weighing on him.
Watch the second half. A healthy deGrom going into a pennant race is the kind of weapon teams cannot prepare for. He is not a guy who throws six and hands it over to the high-leverage arms because he is conserving. He is a guy who throws bullets and dares you to put the bat on it.
The personal angle is what is going to stick with him. DeGrom lost his father a few years back. He has talked openly about how baseball became a way to spend time with family on the road. Having a son turning three the same night he hits a career milestone is the kind of thing you frame and put in the living room.
For Rangers fans, this is the kind of season where the stars are starting to align. DeGrom on milestone watch. Marcus Semien hot at the plate. Texas has been waiting for a fully healthy ace, and they finally have one.
The St. Louis fans were polite about it. The Cardinals broadcast tipped the cap. Cardinals lineups are not what they used to be, and deGrom carved through them like he was throwing simulated game in mid-March.
Next stop is win 101, then 110, then a contract conversation later in the summer about extending him past his current deal. DeGrom does not talk money. He talks pitching. The Rangers have to talk money.
For one night, none of that mattered. He got his 100th. His kid turned three. He went home happy.
That is a hell of a Monday.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
