ARLINGTON, Texas — Nathan Eovaldi‘s impressive streak for Texas ended with a dud, but without a decision in a victory that the wild card-chasing Rangers really needed.
After going 6-0 with a 0.47 ERA in six starts since the start of July, Eovaldi was tagged for three home runs while allowing season highs of five runs and eight hits in five innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night. The Rangers were down 5-1 when he exited, but won 7-6 in 10 innings to end their four-game losing streak.
“That’s all that matters at the end of the day,” Eovaldi said. “Regardless how well I do out there or anything, it’s about the team winning the games. Especially with where we are at this point of the season and everything.”
The 35-year-old right-hander struck out three, walked one and hit two batters. He got a no-decision because Rowdy Tellez homered in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game, and Jake Burger delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the 10th.
“Nate’s been so, so good. And he just showed that, hey, you’re gonna have occasional games where you don’t quite command it as well. And they took advantage of it,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But he’s picked us up so many times. So man, what a great job by the boys. And find a way to win that ball game with just a gutty effort by everybody, bullpen, hitters. We needed this one.”
Eovaldi had given up only six runs total over his previous seven starts, and half of those runs came in the same game. There had only been two long balls against him his past 14 games.
When he pitched one-hit ball over eight innings in a 2-0 win over the New York Yankees last Tuesday, it was the 13th time in a 14-game span allowing one or zero runs. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson is the only pitcher since 1900 to record that kind of streak, according to STATS, and he did it in 1968, the season he won both the NL Cy Young and MVP awards.
“I’ve got to make better pitches, stick to my strengths and what’s worked for me all year,” Eovaldi said. “And I kind of got away from that a little bit tonight.”
Even though Evoladi’s overall ERA rose from 1.38 to 1.71, that is still better than the 1.94 of qualified MLB leader Paul Skenes. The AL leader is reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal at 2.35.
Eovaldi, who missed most of June with elbow inflammation, has thrown 116 innings in the Rangers’ 120 games. Pitchers need one inning per team game to qualify as a league leader.
Arizona’s first five batters were retired before rookie first baseman Tyler Locklear homered in the second. Jake McCarthy opened the third with a double and Corbin Carrol followed with his 26th homer, a shot that ricocheted off the right-field pole. Ketel Marte was then hit by a pitch on his left elbow before Geraldo Perdomo’s 12th homer for a 5-0 lead.
“I didn’t feel like my splitter was as good as it has been. I thought I threw a lot of pitches up at the top of the strike zone, and I feel like that’s where a lot the damage was,” Eovaldi said. “I fell behind in some of the counts. The Perdomo at-bat, I yanked a fastball right down the middle. … The two-run shots, they hurt.”
Eovaldi benefitted from double plays in both the fourth and fifth innings to avoid giving up any more run. The Dbacks were coming off a 17-hit game in their 13-6 win at home over Colorado on Sunday, when they set a franchise record with nine consecutive hits in the fifth inning – all with two outs.
Only four MLB pitchers since 1920 had a lower ERA than the 1.38 for Eovaldi in the first 19 starts of a season, with Gibson’s 1.06 for St. Louis in 1968 the lowest.
This is Eovaldi’s third season with the Rangers, who gave him the $100,000 All-Star bonus that is in his contract even though he was left off the American League All-Star team last month.
