deGrom, Rangers Thump Athletics

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

August 31, 2026

Rangers 8, Athletics 1

ARLINGTON, Texas (Aug 31) — The Texas Rangers began their latest homestand with a 8–1 victory over the Athletics Monday evening in front of a small crowd of 22,572. Jacob deGrom pitched seven innings of one-hit ball in this convincing win. With the victory, the Rangers remained two games behind the division-leading Houston Astros, 6–3 winners over the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox. The Rangers will try for the series win Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm Central at Globe Life Field. Lefty MacKenzie Gore will take the hill for the Rangers, and the Athletics will start left-handed reliever Brady Basso in a bullpen game.

Rangers – Athletics Game Summary

The Rangers drew first blood in the bottom of the second off rookie lefty Gage Jump. Brandon Nimmo led off with a single that rolled back to Jump, who bobbled it, allowing Nimmo to reach first safely. Jake Burger sent Nimmo to third with a double to center. After Justin Foscue flied to right, Elias Diaz brought Nimmo home with a 6–3 groundout. On deck was Cody Freeman, who plated Burger from third with a single up the middle.

The lead stretched to 3–0 in the bottom of the third. Jump allowed a one-out free pass to Corey Seager and threw a wild pitch to advance him to second. Up next was Wyatt Langford, who flied to center, advancing Seager to third. Moments latter, Nimmo lined a single to center to plate Seager.

The Rangers made it 4–0 in the bottom of the fourth. It came to pass thanks to a leadoff homer to left-center by Foscue on a 2–0 pitch, his 10th of the season.

A 4–0 lead turned into a 7–0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff single to left by Ezequiel Duran set the table for Seager, who drew his second walk of the night. Duran scored shortly after thanks to a sacrifice fly to left by Nimmo. That brought Athletics manager Mark Kotsay to the mound to bring in Chris Roycroft to relieve Jump. Seager scored on the next play courtesy of a sharp single to center by Burger. Evan Carter, pinch-hitting for Foscue, drove in Langford by grounding into a 3–6 force play.

Late Insurance for Rangers

The Rangers tallied one more in the bottom of the eighth against reliever Jose Suarez. With one out, Logan O’Hoppe came off the bench to pinch-hit for Joc Pederson and doubled to left. That brought up Freeman, who plated O’Hoppe with a single to left.

The Athletics ended the Rangers’ shutout bid in the top of the ninth with reliever Ben Peoples on the mound. Carlos Cortes opened the stanza with a single to center. He moved to third on a double to left by former Ranger Jonah Heim. On deck was Darell Hernaiz, who scored Cortes with a sacrifice fly to center.

What Went Right for the Rangers

The Rangers managed to get to the Athletics early in this game. Their first seven runs crossed the plate before the sixth inning. It’s similar to a boxer taking the wind out of his opponent in the early rounds. It gives him the upper hand. In the Rangers’ case, the blows came in the form of Foscue’s homer, Nimmo’s RBI single, Langford’s groundout, and Freeman’s RBI single in the late innings.

What Went Wrong for the Rangers

The Rangers cruised up until the ninth. They hit a bit of a snag when Hernaiz brought home Cortes with his sacrifice fly.

Vintage deGrom

Rangers starter Jacob deGrom allowed only one hit and faced the minimum over seven scoreless innings en route to his 10th victory of 2026. He improves to 10–9 with an ERA of 4.00. His line was 0 BB, 8 K, 85 pitches/56 strikes. Monday marked his second career outing in which he opposed 21 batters through seven frames. The other came June 1, 2015 at the San Diego Padres while with the New York Mets. deGrom became the first Ranger to face the minimum through seven innings since Jon Gray on June 7, 2023 versus the St. Louis Cardinals.

The only baserunner deGrom allowed was a leadoff single from Lawrence Butler in the second, which was subsequently erased by a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play. It was deGrom’s fourth induced double play this year to match his 2025 total.

Monday was his 12th career start of seven or more scoreless innings, eight or more strikeouts, and no walks since his major league debut in 2014. He is tied for second-most in the majors during the span. Two of those 12 starts have come in 2026. deGrom now has back-to-back seasons of 10 or more wins (12–8 in 2025) for the first time since 2017-19 with the Mets.

Jump’s Outing

Athletics starter Gage Jump drew his ninth loss of the season. He is now 6–9 after yielding seven runs, all earned, across 4 1/3 innings. After putting together a 1-2-3 first, Jump permitted runs in each of the next four frames, including the solo shot by Foscue leading off the fourth. He exited after Nimmo’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the fifth, with the Athletics behind 5–0. Jump fanned two Rangers Monday, his third-lowest total in a single game this season. He struck out one opponent twice: July 5 versus the Miami Marlins and August 14 versus the Rangers.

Jump still has 99 strikeouts through his first 18 career games, the fourth-most by an Athletics pitcher through his first 18 career outings. He trails Tim Hudson (119), Barry Zito (109), and Sonny Gray (104). Jump posted a 7.58 ERA across six starts in August, raising his season ERA from 4.00 to 5.15.

Schumaker’s Postgame Comments

After the game, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker reflected on Monday’s game. “It was a good, complete team win,” he said. “Something that we’ve hoped for over the last road trip and we’ve had some good starts and tough offensive days. We’ve had really good offensive days and some tough starts from starting pitchers. So for Jacob (deGrom) to go out and do what he did, seven innings of one-hit ball was exactly what we needed.”