ARLINGTON -- Now that was vintage Nathan Eovaldi.
Staring down a potential fourth straight loss, the Rangers turned to their co-ace to stop the bleeding. He did what was expected of him.
Eovaldi dealt seven scoreless innings in the Rangers’ 3-0 win over the Yankees, striking out seven and generating 20 whiffs in a dominant showing. A fifth-inning two-run single by Josh Jung was enough to carry Texas to a win to avoid the sweep.
“I’m not surprised,” said Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. “This is who he is.”
Eovaldi was coming off one of the worst outings of his Rangers tenure (2023-present), when he allowed six runs and four homers to the Athletics on Friday. He had been tweaking his mechanics all month, as he entered the day with a 5.79 ERA on the season.
“It shows you that he's also human,” Schumaker said. “It's okay to have a couple starts that are not what he’s used to. He just didn't have it for a couple starts. I think this is where he's going to be the rest of the year.”
Eovaldi is always adjusting and tweaking his mechanics between starts, regardless of how good or bad he’s pitching.
Between that poor A’s start to this Yankees start, he got in the lab with pitching coach Jordan Tiegs in order to find success again. That mainly included an effective pitch mix with all of his pitches working for him, especially his splitter, which has evaded him for much of the early part of the season.
“Obviously, [the splitter] is my go-to pitch when I'm in trouble,” Eovaldi said. “I haven't had much success with it early. I feel like every at-bat is a tough battle. I've been grinding, but using the splitter at the right times is big. And today I feel like the curveball was really big for me and just being able to land that.”
The splitter and cutter made up 68 percent of Eovaldi’s pitch usage in the win, which also included a dramatically low number of four-seam fastballs (nine), which opponents are slugging 1.238 against this season.
“I feel like when I do throw my fastball, I give up hits with it,” Eovaldi explained. “I feel like I located it well to [Cody] Bellinger, and he drove it to left field. But at the same time, I feel like a cutter or sinker is great, using the fastball at the top of the zone. I just try to pick and choose the right opportunities to use those pitches.”
While Schumaker repeatedly said that he wasn’t worried about Eovaldi’s production, the struggles were hard to ignore. Against the Yankees, he looked as good as ever, allowing just four hits, all of which were singles.
While the starting pitching hasn’t been the issue for the Rangers during this 4-5 homestand, it goes without saying that they need the best version of Eovaldi in order to get back on track.
Texas closed out March and April with a 15-16 record.
“I think we match up as good as anybody in the league,” Schumaker said. “We were in every single game, even the ones we didn't end up winning. It shows a lot about who's in that clubhouse. We haven't had Wyatt for a full year. Corey is not off to the start that he wants to be on. Evo didn't have the start he wanted. We still have a respectable record right now against the competition that we've played.
“Could we have a better record? Of course. But there are some signs of things to be excited about. That's the main thing.”