{"id":287307,"date":"2026-05-10T23:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/287307\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T23:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:50:09","slug":"is-jacob-degrom-dominant-in-99th-win-a-hall-of-famer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/287307\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Jacob deGrom, dominant in 99th win, a Hall of Famer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 The old adage in baseball is that a pitcher doesn\u2019t look at the opposing hurler because he only has to focus on the hitters.<\/p>\n

But Chicago Cubs starter Jameson Taillon ignored conventional wisdom Sunday as Texas Rangers star Jacob deGrom was mowing down Cubs hitters in a 3-0 win at Globe Life Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really pay too much mind to the pitching matchup, but somebody like deGrom, you\u2019re obviously aware,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cYou can kind of feel him picking up steam and the strikeouts and the fans getting behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy is probably a future Hall of Famer and one of the best to do it. When he\u2019s healthy, he\u2019s one of the top three, four in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGrom outdueled Taillon for his 99th career win, handing the Cubs their first series loss since the Los Angeles Dodgers took two of three April 24-26 at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

After their second 10-game winning streak ended Saturday<\/a>, the Cubs (27-14) now have been shut out in back-to-back games and gone 20 innings without a run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have the best offensive game the last two games,\u201d left fielder Ian Happ said. \u201cBut that just means it\u2019s coming. This group is too good to have a couple straight shutouts and not put up some big numbers moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old deGrom, a probable first-ballot Hall of Famer if not for a series of injuries \u2014 including two Tommy John surgeries \u2014 shut out the Cubs for seven innings, allowing three hits and striking out 10.<\/p>\n

He looked just like he did in his prime with the New York Mets, albeit without the shoulder-length hair. He had 22 whiffs, a season high for Cubs hitters, and passed the 1,900-strikeout mark in the first inning, the second-fastest pitcher to reach that milestone in both games (256) and innings pitched (1,578 1\/3). Randy Johnson did it in 252 games, Chris Sale in 1,560 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

DeGrom might not have enough career wins to be a Hall of Fame lock, but with changes in the game reducing the importance of win totals, his strikeouts and career ERA could get him over the hump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s got it,\u201d Taillon said, pointing to the 1,900 strikeouts in 1,578 1\/3 innings. \u201cMind-boggling. I\u2019m a fan of all that and heard he\u2019s a great dude and teammate. Just one of those guys, it\u2019s kind of amazing what he can do. Also a two-time (Tommy John) guy (like Taillon), so I follow guys like that a little closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taillon allowed one run in 5 1\/3 innings, an RBI groundout to first by Alejandro Osuna in the fourth when Joc Pederson was ruled safe on a swipe tag by catcher Carson Kelly.<\/p>\n

The Cubs challenged the call, but replays were inconclusive after a long review and the call stood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to keep it close, and we were in it to the end,\u201d Taillon said.<\/p>\n

DeGrom came in having limited lefties to a .156 average, and Cubs lefties went 1-for-11 against him with seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki walks away from the batter’s box after striking out against Rangers starter Jacob deGrom in the first inning Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)<\/p>\n

The closest the Cubs came to scoring off deGrom was Happ\u2019s seventh-inning foul ball that landed in the right-field seats, a few feet to the right of the foul pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would\u2019ve been nice,\u201d Happ said. \u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s really good. I got one pitch in that at-bat to hit, made a good swing on it, and in that situation he threw me four straight heaters. He went right back to it, wasn\u2019t afraid of it. He\u2019s a special talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Happ struck out on the next pitch \u2014 a 98 mph fastball \u2014 and saw his career-high 30-game on-base streak snapped. All three of his strikeouts against deGrom came on four-seamers.<\/p>\n

Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros, another lefty hitter, struck out three times against deGrom on 98, 96 and 97 mph fastballs and failed to make contact on any of the eight four-seamers he swung at.<\/p>\n

Daniel Palencia served up a two-run home run to Evan Carter in the eighth to give the Rangers some breathing room, and the Cubs limped out of Texas for a much-needed day off.<\/p>\n

Elite matchup in Atlanta<\/p>\n

The Cubs resume their nine-game trip Tuesday with a three-game series in Atlanta, a matchup of teams that have two of the three highest winning percentages in the majors.<\/p>\n

The Braves (28-13) entered their 7-2 victory Sunday against the Dodgers leading the majors in hitting (.271) and runs scored (221) and tied for second with the Dodgers in ERA (3.17) behind the New York Yankees (3.12).<\/p>\n

The Braves are expected to hold tributes to former owner Ted Turner<\/a> and Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox<\/a>, both of whom died this past week while the team was on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate enough to play with J-Hey (Jason Heyward), who had nothing but unbelievable things to say about Bobby Cox,\u201d Happ said. \u201cSo I\u2019m sure there will be a lot of tributes in Atlanta, and it will be special to be there for that. It\u2019s always a good series against them. They\u2019ve been a good team for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

As expected, the Cubs will give Ben Brown another start Thursday after his four no-hit innings Friday<\/a> against the Rangers. Colin Rea and Shota Imanaga will start the first two games of the Braves series.<\/p>\n

Manager Craig Counsell said it\u2019s likely the Cubs would follow the current rotation order for the City Series next weekend at Rate Field, which means Edward Cabrera, Taillon and Rea would face the White Sox, in that order. But Counsell added that he hasn\u2019t really thought about that series yet, shrugging off what\u2019s traditionally one of the most anticipated series of the year.<\/p>\n

Bregman gets a breather
\n\"TheThe Cubs’ Alex Bregman swings and misses a pitch from Rangers starter Kumar Rocker during the first inning Friday, May 8, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez)<\/p>\n

Counsell sat Alex Bregman for the first time Sunday, giving a breather to the struggling third baseman who has yet to get into a groove as a Cub after he was their big offseason signing. Matt Shaw got the start at third.<\/p>\n

Counsell said he was \u201cgoing to cycle through some off days\u201d for players and it was \u201cAlex\u2019s turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

What has he seen from Bregman?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been in a little bit of a rut these last four, five days, so this is a good time for it,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cHe\u2019s chasing a little bit more than normal for sure, and that\u2019s the thing he\u2019s always so good at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bregman said after Saturday\u2019s 6-0 loss that he has gotten off to slow starts before and the numbers will be there when all is said and done.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinue to work at it, continue to grind away and be confident in the fact it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the end of the year, be right where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too much examination?<\/p>\n

Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong seemingly has been going to left field more often.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you guys re-examine Pete\u2019s swing way too much,\u201d Counsell said when asked about it. \u201cI know he\u2019s an interesting player. I think the ball is going to the opposite field. I don\u2019t think there is anything in his swing that\u2019s causing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Informed that readers are particularly interested in Crow-Armstrong relative to other Cubs players, Counsell joked that the only time people read a story with his name in the headline as a player was when he appeared in The Onion<\/a>. He was referring to a 2009 article in the satirical newspaper with the headline: \u201cTurns Out Craig Counsell Was Actually Best Baseball Player Of Steroid Era.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the story, the late Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob Uecker was quoted as saying: \u201cI swear I heard him foul tip a Roger Clemens fastball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 The old adage in baseball is that a pitcher doesn\u2019t look at the opposing hurler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[105364,150,152,151,30933,58562,32457,104881,53311,105113,429],"class_list":["post-287307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-alex-bregman","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball-hall-of-fame","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}