PEORIA, Ariz. -- Jacob deGrom, making his second Cactus League appearance this spring, described his outing as “fine.”

deGrom allowed two runs in four innings against the Mariners in a 3-2 loss on Wednesday afternoon, allowing four hits while walking two and striking out three. As deGrom said, it was fine.

“I didn't get the ball down like I wanted to with my slider,” deGrom said. “I was just missing too much in the middle of the plate. We got away with it the first time through [the order], but I was kind of fighting my mechanics a little bit today. I was a little bit flying open, mainly on my landing. I just wasn't getting down, wasn't working down the mound like I normally do. We can work on that and go from there.”

The Rangers ace said he felt good in the bullpen before the game, but he was unable to carry those mechanics to the mound. Once the batters stepped into the box, his shoulder started flying open and he wasn’t able to make that in-game adjustment.

deGrom’s fastball velocity sat around 95.5 mph and topped out at 97 mph. That’s almost two miles an hour slower than his 2024 average velocity, even if it was just for 10 2/3 innings. The drop in velocity likely had more to do with his energy than anything.

He said last week that he wants to pitch smarter instead of harder as he hopes to return to Cy Young form.

“I could let it go more,” deGrom said of his velo. “It’s just that a day like today, especially when I’m flying open, then you got to be smart with that. You want to land properly and then let it go. I was trying to govern it [the velocity], and see if I could locate it this way. I wasn’t locating any of them really well. Like I said, I’ve got a bullpen and then another game and we’ll figure it out.”

This was just deGrom’s second Cactus League appearance this spring after the Rangers opted to slow play him in the lead-up to Opening Day. He would have made one additional outing prior to Wednesday, though he was scratched from his start on March 13 against the Giants due to a stomach bug.

“Health wise, I feel good, that's the main thing,” deGrom said. “We got up to 57 pitches today, so that's good. Now it's just locking it in for go time.”

Even with injuries to Cody Bradford (elbow soreness) and Jon Gray (wrist fracture), Bochy said deGrom is still slated to start in the back end of the rotation. He will make his 2025 debut either on March 30 against the Red Sox to close out the season-opening series at Globe Life Field, or against the Reds on March 31 to begin the Rangers' first road trip.

“It's unfortunate,” deGrom said of the injuries to the rotation. “But you can never go through a season with only five starters. So the depth we have, like Jack [Leiter], Kumar [Rocker], even [Adrian] Houser or [Patrick] Murphy, these guys, they're throwing the ball really well. We have options.”