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It was the kind of night the Texas Rangers have been waiting for — the kind where the offense wakes up, the ace looks like an ace, and the scoreboards across Globe Life Field finally light up like they’re supposed to.

Tuesday’s 15-2 beatdown of the Oakland Athletics brought a much-needed sigh of relief. After a month of offensive sputters, the Rangers finally strung together the kind of relentless, mature at-bats they’ve been missing. Walks, two-out hits, smart approaches — it all came pouring out in one outburst.

But while the bats finally did their job, it was Jacob deGrom who owned the night.

deGrom, the two-time Cy Young winner, fired six shutout innings with seven strikeouts and no walks. He allowed just four hits, topped out at 99 on the gun — a season first — and leaned heavily on a fastball that averaged 96.7 mph. His ERA now sits at 2.73 after six starts, and for the first time in a while, it felt like vintage deGrom.

“Pretty good pitcher, I would say,” Jonah Heim told The Dallas Morning News‘ Shawn McFarland. “He had command of all his stuff… When he’s doing that, he’s going to be pretty nasty.”

A Return to Form at the Right Time

It’s not just that deGrom was dominant. It’s how he looked doing it. There was a sharpness, an ease — and at times, a little spite. After a soft infield single by Shea Langeliers in the second, deGrom responded with three strikeouts in a row, carving through the Oakland lineup. His pitch count? Just 65 through six innings. Bruce Bochy confirmed he would’ve gone back out for the seventh if not for the Rangers’ six-run explosion in the bottom of the sixth.

This was a long time coming for the 36-year-old righty, who entered the game with solid numbers but hasn’t looked quite like himself. Early in the season, deGrom admitted he was “flying open” with his delivery, which threw off his command. That’s what he cleaned up Monday — and the fix showed up in every pitch he threw Tuesday.

“He’s had a couple good games, I thought, but he was really good tonight,” Bochy said, per McFarland. “I said, when the season started, it’s just going to get better with him as he builds his strength and stamina up.”

Texas is getting strong performances across the board. Their staff ERA sits at 3.14 through 30 games — fourth-best in MLB, and their sixth-best start to a season in franchise history. And it’s not just deGrom carrying the load: only eight qualified starters in the AL have allowed fewer earned runs than deGrom this year, and two of them — Tyler Mahle and Nathan Eovaldi — share the same uniform.

Bochy knows what this could mean. “I’m sure that’s surprising,” he said before the win. “But at the same time, for us, it’s really encouraging. If we get this figured out on the offensive side, we could have some good runs ahead of us.”

Tuesday night was a preview of that good run — a Rangers team firing on all cylinders, anchored by the kind of deGrom performance that makes every fifth day feel like a playoff game.

Jay Pritchard covers Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and sports media for Heavy.com. More about Jay Pritchard