– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS — The old baseball adage that good pitching always beats good hitting was put to the test in Arlington this weekend, as the National League’s hottest offense, the Chicago Cubs, looked to bag another series victory after scoring seven runs in the opening game on Friday.
Enter Jacob de Grom. And once again, some excellent — and historic — pitching ended up quieting hot bats and, in the process, giving the Texas Rangers a series victory.
De Grom turned back the clock as he threw seven scoreless innings while striking out 10, leading the Rangers to a 3-0 win over the Cubs inside Globe Life Field on Sunday afternoon. Josh Jung recorded three hits for the second game in the row and scored the first run of the game in the fourth inning, and Evan Carter smacked a two-run home run in the eighth for insurance.
The Cubs’ 7-1 win on Friday night in Arlington clinched Chicago’s second 10-game inning streak in the span of 23 games, but the Rangers closed out the series with back-to-back shutouts. Four Rangers pitchers combined for a four-hit shutout on Saturday before de Grom’s gem on Sunday, which included him recording his 1,900th career strikeout when he fanned Seiya Suzuki to end the first inning.
“Every day I’m able to put this uniform on, I’m thankful for it,” deGrom said. “As a kid, it was only a dream to be able to play Major League Baseball, and to think that I might be able to accomplish really anything in this game was still just a dream. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do this. So just try to keep going.”
De Grom kept going after that first, retiring the first nine Cubs he faced before allowing a leadoff double to Nico Hoerner in the fourth. After that, de Grom quickly dominated once more, sandwiching two swinging strikeouts of Moisés Ballesteros and Ian Happ with a groundout from Suzuki to end the threat.
“He was good, there’s no question,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell. “The slider — he just doesn’t make mistakes with the slider to the right-handers. He got the fastball for the vast majority of the game, up to our lefties. It’s just such a tough pitch to hit when it’s up. He just doesn’t make mistakes. It’s good stuff. It’s two really good pitches without mistakes.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 32 pictures in total.
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