Beeks, bullpen back Eovaldi in crucial 7th inning to lead Texas to 5th straight win

ST. LOUIS -- Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi takes pride in picking up the bullpen. On Tuesday, the bullpen returned the favor.

Jalen Beeks pulled a Houdini-esque escape in the seventh and Joc Pederson's RBI single in the ninth gave Texas the lead for good as the streaking Rangers beat the Cardinals, 7-4, at Busch Stadium on Tuesday evening to run their winning streak to five games.

Eovaldi -- after turning in a solid six innings -- hit a wall in the seventh, allowing the first four batters to reach and two runs to score to even the game at 4.

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker summoned Beeks with runners on the corners and nobody out. Two strikeouts and a flyout later, Beeks took Eovaldi off the hook.

Pederson’s hit off Riley O’Brien -- his third of the game -- gave the Rangers a 5-4 lead. Josh Jung followed with an RBI single and Brandon Nimmo’s sacrifice fly added insurance.

Eovaldi gave up 11 hits and allowed four runs in his six-plus innings. He struck out seven and walked one.

In an era littered with five-and-dive starters, Eovaldi is a throwback. He has gone six or more innings in each of his last seven starts, and before Tuesday, he had worked seven innings or more in each of his previous five starts.

Having an innings eater such as Eovaldi is essential, allowing a team to reset its bullpen on a regular basis, but it was the bullpen that shined on Tuesday. Beeks, Cal Quantrill and Jakob Junis turned in three scoreless innings for the Rangers, allowing only two hits and zero walks while striking out three.

Jimmy Crooks gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single. The run snapped a streak of 28 consecutive scoreless innings by Rangers starters, the third-longest such streak in franchise history.

Nolan Gorman muscled an opposite-field solo homer in the fourth to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. It is the third straight start in which Eovaldi allowed at least one home run.

The Rangers took advantage of a Dustin May fielding decision to even the game at 2 in the fifth. With runners on the corners, May fielded a comebacker off the bat of Nicky Lopez. Instead of throwing home, May elected to try to get an inning-ending double play, but Lopez beat out the throw at first, which allowed Evan Carter to score. Pederson followed with his second double of the game, scoring Lopez.

Alejandro Osuna’s two-out single scored Jake Burger to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead in the sixth and ended May’s night, and Kyle Higashioka scored on a Jung sacrifice fly in the seventh.