It’s apparently debut week for the Texas Rangers.
On Thursday, the Rangers sent right-hander Kumar Rocker to the mound in Seattle for his major-league debut.
On Friday, right-hander Jacob deGrom is scheduled to make his season debut.
deGrom, a two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, will make his first start since April 28, 2023, when he tore his ulnar collateral ligament and needed a second Tommy John surgery. He went 2-0 with a 2.67 ERA over six starts for the Rangers last season with 45 strikeouts and just four walks in 30 1/3 innings after signing a five-year, $185 million deal as a free agent.
“I feel really good,” deGrom told Bally Sports Southwest after his final rehab outing Saturday for Double-A Frisco. “We thought it was really important to make this last start, get one more up and just work on my offspeed mainly. Trying to iron all that out before going back to trying to help the team.
“… It’s been a long time since I’ve been out there competing, so those are adjustments that I’m going to have to make. I’m sure there’s gonna be more throughout the process. I’m ready to get back to help the Texas Rangers.”
In addition, veteran right-hander Max Scherzer is expected to start Saturday against the Mariners after being on the injured list since Aug. 2 with right shoulder fatigue.
“I’m very excited, it’s a fun week,” Rangers general manager Chris Young said. “Any time you get to debut one of your top prospects and you get two of the best pitchers in the game back, (it’s great).”
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said he doesn’t have a set number of pitches in mind for deGrom and Scherzer.
“If they can go five innings or 60 (pitches), somewhere in there,” Bochy said. “If innings are going really smoothly, then they can go back out. We don’t have a hard count on it.”
The defending World Series champion Rangers (71-76), who have won 11 of their past 16 games, are looking to play spoiler in the American League West race.
They rallied for a 5-4 victory in the series opener as Josh Jung, Nathaniel Lowe and Marcus Semien each hit a solo homer. Rocker, the former first-round pick, went four innings and gave up one run on three hits, with two walks and seven strikeouts.
The Mariners (74-73) blew a three-run lead in dropping 4 1/2 games back in both the AL West and wild-card races.
“Tough loss,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “It was a tough one to swallow. It’s tough to lose a lead like that late. Our guys will bounce back. We’ve done it before. We’ll come back (Friday) ready to go.”
deGrom is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA in two previous starts against Seattle. The Mariners hadn’t yet named a starter for Friday’s game to fill the spot of ace Luis Castillo, who went on the injured list earlier this week with a left hamstring strain, though they’re expected to call up right-hander Emerson Hancock (3-4, 4.76 ERA) from Triple-A Tacoma.
