Jacob deGrom came into Tuesday night off one of the best stretches of his 38-year-old career, having just punched out his 2,000th career strikeout against Washington in the second-fewest games in MLB history behind only Randy Johnson. The White Sox did not care. They jumped him for six runs before he recorded a third out, an eyesore of a first inning that turned a marquee pitching matchup into a laugher at Guaranteed Rate Field.
A SIX run 1st inning for the White Sox off Jacob deGrom!
Colson Montgomery, who's been open about his own offensive struggles this season, was right in the middle of it — he drew a walk during the six-run outburst and added an RBI single in the fourth for good measure. It's the kind of inning that doesn't happen to deGrom often against Chicago specifically; he'd carried a career mark of 0-1 with a respectable 3.28 ERA against the White Sox in four prior appearances before Tuesday. This one blew that up fast.
For deGrom, it's a rough deviation from the form that's defined most of his 2026 season. He's still sitting at 9-8 with a 3.77 ERA for Texas, a number that's climbed a bit from last year's 2.97 mark but still represents a real bounce-back for a guy who's had two Tommy John surgeries and once looked like his career might end in bits and pieces rather than full seasons. He didn't survive the fourth inning Tuesday, and the Rangers' night unraveled from there.
None of that stopped White Sox fans from having a field day with it. A six-run first inning off a $185 million ace, former Cy Young winner, and newly minted 2,000-strikeout club member is the kind of thing a fanbase that hasn't had much to celebrate lately will milk for all it's worth.
Fantastic feeling opening my phone to the Sox teabagging deGrom tonight
The joke writes itself: deGrom is a franchise arm the Rangers built a rotation around, and for one inning the White Sox made him look like a middle reliever getting torched in mop-up duty. It's a single bad outing in a season that's otherwise gone well for him, but on a night like this, the box score doesn't care about the résumé.