– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Unlike most of his starts during what looks to be a Hall-of-Fame career, Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob de Grom had a little bit of time during a contest to take in the appreciation of his greatness on Thursday evening. He acknowledged it quickly, then went about taking more steps toward history — and leading his team one step closer to succeeding in a playoff push.
de Grom recorded career strikeout No. 2000 during a dominant performance in the Rangers’ 2-0 victory over the Washington Nationals inside Globe Life Park. The milestone was part of a 10-strikeout night for de Grom, who allowed just one hit and a walk in six scoreless frames.
Coming into the game just two strikeouts away from the mark, de Grom took care of business after the first two hitters of the game, fanning Daylen Lyle and Abimemec Ortiz as the crowd and Rangers players in the dugout gave him a standing ovation afterward.
deGrom is the second-fastest pitcher in MLB history to 2,000 career strikeouts by both games (272, behind Randy Johnson’s 262) and innings pitched (1,661, behind Chris Sale’s 1,626).
“It was very cool,” deGrom said. “Obviously I’ve said it before, personal accomplishments are cool, but the goal is to win. The most important thing tonight was to go out there and put us in a position to win. I go out there and try to leave it all out on the field. That’s how I’ve always played the game. If I can walk in here, if I can look myself in the mirror and say I gave 100%, then I can live with what happened. I’m proud of this accomplishment, but we’ve still got work to do as a team.”
de Grom continued to go to work on Thursday as he completely was in control of the Nationals’ hitters. It was his third career start of six or more scoreless innings, one or fewer hits and 10 or more strikeouts, the previous two coming during his time with the Mets.
Corey Seager provided the only run the Rangers would need with a solo homer in the third inning. The Rangers added an insurance run in the eighth on a Nicky Lopez sacrifice fly that scored Ezequiel Duran.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’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 25 pictures in total.
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