Rangers news: Jacob DeGrom drops 'best hitter' Aaron Judge take after epic duel

After establishing himself as one of baseball’s best pitchers while with the New York Mets, injuries started taking a toll on Jacob deGrom’s career. He signed with the Texas Rangers in 2023 but needed Tommy John surgery and was only able to make nine total starts over his first two seasons with his new team. But in 2025, deGrom has looked like his vintage self.

Finally healthy and pitching well, deGrom returned to New York for the first time since leaving the Mets to take on the Yankees in the second game of an important three-game series for the Rangers. Of course, the marquee matchup in this contest was deGrom vs. Aaron Judge. The two-time Cy Young winner against the two-time MVP.

For his part, deGrom recognized what he was up against, explaining to reporters how it’s necessary to approach Judge. “He's probably the best hitter in baseball. Seeing what he's doing this year, you just gotta make sure you make your pitches,” the veteran righty said per SNY Yankees Videos on X.

“You know what he can do. It was a close ball game. So, try not to make any mistakes to him,” deGrom added.

Jacob deGrom and the Rangers fell just short against the Yankees

Judge is having yet another extraordinary year at the plate. He entered Wednesday’s game slashing an otherworldly .403/.491/.762. He leads the majors in all three categories as well as bWAR, hits, RBI and a bunch of other stats.

However, in his matchup with deGrom the Yankees captain was bested by the Rangers’ ace. But fans were still treated to an epic duel. In his first at-bat, Judge worked a six-pitch walk but couldn’t advance beyond second as deGrom got himself out of early trouble. The two then met again in the third inning for a memorable battle. The Rangers’ veteran needed nine pitches to retire Judge on a fly out as the Yankees’ star fouled off five offerings while he worked the count full.

Their final meeting of the game came in the sixth and was fairly uneventful. After going down 2-0 early in the count, deGrom induced a grounder to short.

Overall, the four-time All-Star pitcher allowed just two runs on three hits and one walk over seven innings while striking out nine. Once again, deGrom looked like his vintage self. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for the Rangers. Despite two clutch home runs from Jake Burger, Texas lost on a walk-off home run by Jasson Dominguez in the bottom of the ninth.