Eovaldi’s assist boosts Leiter's swagger

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Before Jack Leiter’s start against the A’s on Friday night, he had already received a text from Nathan Eovaldi, who was recently placed on the injured list with a right rotator cuff strain.

Leiter said Eovaldi still did a scouting report for the A’s hitters from home and shared it with him.

Eovaldi texted Leiter about his start before the rookie had even left Sutter Health Park on Friday night.

“You do rally around losing guys like that, especially when it's your ace, like Evo,” Leiter said. “He's been incredible. He didn't travel this week, but he was texting me, and he dove in on the A's lineup. Only Evo does that. He texted me a bunch about the game already tonight, so he's in it with us. Hopefully we can do something cool, that'd be awesome.”

Whatever Eovaldi gave him, it clearly worked out. Leiter dealt six innings of two-run ball in the Rangers' win, marking the third time in his career that he's thrown back-to-back quality starts. It’s also his first career quality start on the road; his road ERA before that had been 5.45.

“He's got a good focus out there,” said manager Bruce Bochy of Leiter. “He's really doing a nice job of throwing strikes. I thought he got a little tight tonight. I thought he made some good pitches. Since the All-Star break, he just does a great job of pitching, too. He's got four pitches and he throws them all for strikes. He's tough with that velo.”

Since the All-Star break, Leiter is 4-1 with a 2.61 ERA and .191 opponent batting average, ranking among MLB hurlers (minimum 8 starts) in opponent average (3rd), opponent OPS (3rd), ERA (4th) and opponent slugging (4th).

“I think it’s just his confidence out there,” said catcher Jonah Heim. “I think he goes about his starts with conviction each and every day. I think we've seen the last two starts. He's attacking the zone, he's not walking guys, and he's getting quick outs. His changeup has come a long way. I think that's been his biggest weapon this year so far.”

A big reason for Leiter’s success has been because of a new changeup -- a kick change -- that he introduced in Spring Training. In Friday’s win, he relied heavily on it, throwing the pitch 27.8% of the time (27 of 97 total pitches). That was his second-highest usage rate on the pitch in a game this season (30.5% on July 21 vs. ATH).

Leiter also induced a career-high eight swings-and-misses on the pitch, matching the most changeup whiffs in a single game by a Rangers pitcher since the start of 2024 (M. Lorenzen on May 13, 2024 vs. CLE).

“It's a big pitch for him,” Bochy said. “I think it's a big pitch for anybody. It sets up a lot of other pitches, gets them off his fastball, comes in like a fastball, and has good action to it. I think it's hard to pick up, and he's getting more and more command of it, more confidence throwing it in any count. In the past, I know he's been aggressive when he gets behind, and been a little susceptible to giving up some damage, but he's comfortable throwing that pitch any time now.”

When Leiter debuted the reworked changeup, it was a work in progress. But he said he liked it better than any changeup he’s ever thrown. He’s only gotten more confident with it as the season has gone on.

That’s shown in the usage.

Leiter threw his old changeup about 5.8% of the time in his brief time in the big leagues in 2024, when he threw just 35 2/3 innings. This season, he’s thrown it about 15.7% of the time, making it his third most-used pitch behind his four-seamer (36.8%) and slider (23.8%).

“I think it was gradual, just here and there we'd sprinkle it in and get better and better, and we’d start leaning on it when in big situations,” Heim said of the pitch’s progress. “When you can trust a pitch in big situations, you know, it's a good pitch. It just happened naturally.”