DeGrom to Undergo Imaging After Leaving Start Early

Texas Rangers ace Jacob deGrom will undergo imaging after he left Thursday night’s start against the Los Angeles Angels following just two innings of work because of right triceps fatigue.

DeGrom said he felt like he could have pitched through the discomfort, which began in the second inning, but the Rangers decided the best move was to play it safe.

“I wasn’t going to risk it once I heard [it was] the triceps," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said after the game.

"Obviously, you don't want to hear anything arm-related. You pull a guy out in the second inning; it's concerning. But we'll figure it out when he gets some imaging. We won't know until they get in there."

Despite the uncertainty, deGrom isn’t too concerned the issue will affect him much moving forward.

“I’m not too concerned,” deGrom said. “Hopefully I’ll make my next [start]; we’ll see. Tonight, it just, there in the second, it was tight and just didn’t want to loosen up. I haven’t really had that before.”

“Just see how it is tomorrow and then come up with a plan,” deGrom explained. “We’ve been doing a lot to treat that area. That’s what I normally do in my routine. But this last, whatever, week, I guess, it just didn’t recover, and then I felt it tonight there in the second. They made the decision that it was not best to go forward.”

DeGrom entered play on Thursday expecting a historic night as he was just five strikeouts away from 2,000 in his career, but will have to wait until his next start to hit the milestone after recording three strikeouts in his pair of innings.

The news of deGrom’s exit comes just days after Texas placed his fellow veteran right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day Injured List with right posterior elbow inflammation.

“The starting pitching has taken a hit. That is reality with our two guys going down,” Schumaker said. “We’ll see what it looks like, obviously. Jack Leiter threw today, so that’s good news. But it’s never easy when your No. 1 and No. 2 guys are down, but they're here. Evo’s here. And they can still be a voice and still lead in different ways.”

Schumaker knows that it’ll be up to him and his staff to piece together the Rangers' pitching plans and find ways to have more success while shorthanded in a stretch of critical baseball.

“We’ve got to figure it out,” Schumaker said. “It starts with me. I’ve got to start doing something different on the road. In-division especially, we have just not been good. We’ve got to switch it up somehow, and I’ve got to think of new ideas for that to happen. Because that series right there just can’t happen. Especially where we’re at in the season, we’ve got to fight back, and it starts tomorrow.”