Boston Red Sox at Texas Rangers

With a growing sense of urgency as the postseason nears, the Rangers can hardly afford to waste any start from Jacob deGrom, however abbreviated those outings might be. What he lacks in depth, while he continues to deal with groin tightness, he is making up for in grit. deGrom only made it five innings in Tuesday night’s 4-2 win over the Red Sox. But even in a somewhat limited capacity, he continued to dominate, striking out eight while allowing two earned runs on three hits and a walk as he improved to 11-9 on the season. Last time out, in Seattle, deGrom was pulled after six scoreless innings. He threw an extremely light bullpen in Arizona on Sunday and declared himself ready to go for Tuesday. “I just threw 10 fastballs, nice and easy, just to feel the slope,” deGrom said. “Might have been nine.” On Tuesday, deGrom threw 92 pitches (53 strikes). Most importantly, he worked his way out of a fifth-inning jam that saw two runners reach base on the first two pitches of the inning, and handed the ball to the Rangers’ bullpen with the lead. “He gave us everything he had,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He did not feel 100 percent. You could tell. I knew earlier that he wasn't 100 percent. But the way he attacked them and went about it -- he gave us everything he had, and that's all we could ever ask for.”