Big Game Nate leads Rangers to win, and he's hungry for more

ARLINGTON -- Wherever there’s a big game, you can be sure to find Nate somewhere around there.

Saturday night’s matchup between the Rangers and Mariners was as big of a big game that any starting pitcher can have in the regular season. The whole weekend is, honestly, with the top two teams in the American League West facing off just a week and some change away from the Trade Deadline.

Regardless of the record of either team at this moment, this is the kind of series that could determine the division come the end of September.

Big Game Nate delivered.

Rangers co-ace Nathan Eovaldi tossed seven innings of one-run ball while striking out eight on Saturday night, helping the Texas to a 7-1 win over the Mariners to secure the first two of a four-game wraparound set at Globe Life Field.

“[Eovaldi] was not feeling well at all in Atlanta,” said manager Skip Schumaker. “I feel like he's finally recovered. I don't even know if he was 100% tonight, quite honestly, but it took a long time for him to feel good again. You wouldn't know it the way he's going about it. He never gives you an excuse. He's the leader on that staff for a reason.”

Eovaldi cruised through the first four innings, allowing a walk and a single but facing just one over the minimum thanks to a caught stealing. The Mariners got on the board in the fifth with a pair of two-out hits from Luke Raley and J.P. Crawford. But Eovaldi easily got through his final two frames to keep Seattle from getting within striking distance.

“The splitter was there from the beginning of the game, and I feel like that always is a good recipe of success for me,” Eovaldi said.

The Rangers’ offense scored early and often to provide Eovaldi and the pitching staff enough cushion to work with, thanks in part to a three-hit performance by Wyatt Langford, who went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles before exiting the game for a defensive replacement in the seventh inning.

Langford fouled back-to-back pitches off his lower body before his double in the second inning, causing it to swell up. X-rays came back clean, and he's hopeful to return for the final two games of the series.

“I think both [Eovaldi and Langford] stepped up in a big game tonight,” Schumaker said. “I don't know if it's a statement. I would just say that they showed up in a big way in a big game in the middle of July. That's the biggest takeaway for me, one of the best games I've seen Evo pitch this year, and Wyatt Langford … that just shows you what kind of player he is. The toughness -- he was not coming out of that game, no matter what, no matter how hard I tried. It just kind of shows you what he's made of.”

Eovaldi also notched his 10th win of the year, tied for the second most in the American League behind Boston’s Sonny Gray (12). Eovaldi has now reached at least 10 wins in each of his four seasons with the Rangers (beginning in 2023), making him the first Ranger with four straight 10-win seasons since Rick Helling from 1998-2001.

The win gave the Rangers a season-high two-game cushion in the AL West standings, with Houston jumping Seattle (2 1/2 games back) for second place. Texas also improved to 6-2 against the Mariners this year (5-0 at home), needing just one more win across the final five games against them to claim the season series.

For the Rangers, the focus is on getting these wins right now at home.

“To me, [winning the first two games], I think it makes me hungry for more,” Eovaldi said. “We got the first two. We got [Jacob] deGrom going out there again tomorrow. It's important to win the series. You don't want to just split it, and I think right now we've got momentum in our favor. It's just about going out there and continuing to do what we've been doing.”