Eovaldi delivers bounce-back start vs. Tigers

NEW YORK -- Nathan Eovaldi had the chance to repeat his last start, or move past it.

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In the Yankees' 14-3 win over the Tigers on Saturday night, Eovaldi elected for the latter.

Coming off his worst start as a Yankee on Tuesday in Miami -- where he was pulled after allowing eight runs and nine hits in two-thirds of an inning against his former club -- Eovaldi proved it was a one-time struggle.

The right-hander earned his sixth win of the season, retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced and registered his fifth quality start. In six-plus innings, he allowed three hits, two runs and struck out four.

"I thought his stuff was pretty good again tonight," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He had a bad start in Miami. You can look for a lot of reasons -- he didn't make his pitches. But tonight, he made his pitches against a tough lineup."

Eovaldi threw 59 of his 93 pitches for strikes, and the four baserunners he allowed tied for a career low for a start. Because his previous outing was so brief, Eovaldi was able to pitch on three days' rest for the first time in his career.

"I was able to locate the fastball. The slider felt really good for me tonight," Eovaldi said. "I still use the split a lot. ... I haven't really been using the curveball lately, so being able to mix that in there tonight helped out."

The run support Eovaldi got early certainly gave him a cushion as he headed back out each inning, but he said mistakes were something he still worried about.

On Saturday, it didn't show.

"Just went out there and tried to attack the zone. I had great defensive plays behind me: [Brett Gardner], [Chris Young, Didi [Gregorius] -- real good plays," he said. "We jumped on them early."