ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers have played in front of the two largest crowds for a baseball game in Globe Life Field history this season. The record, set Saturday vs. the Houston Astros, is 40,380. The previous mark, set April 29. vs. the New York Yankees, was 40,027.
Nathan Eovaldi pitched in both games. Brilliantly, too.
That’s no coincidence.
That’s why he’s here.
Eovaldi — who threw a shutout in that April win vs. the Yankees, and was one-third of Texas’ offseason pitching shopping spree — pitched seven shutout innings, induced more double plays (three) than he allowed hits (two) and equalized arguably the biggest series in this stadium’s history in a 5-2 win over Houston.
Yeah, that’s why he’s here.
“I think you have to look at the man himself,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s just a tough competitor. He’s been through a lot of battles, not just during the season, but postseason. He’s got great poise out there, he holds runners, he does all the little things you like from a pitcher.”
He does hold the runners, not that there were too many to hold Saturday. Kyle Tucker hit a two-out single to left field in the first inning; All-Star catcher Jonah Heim threw him out attempting to steal second. Yainer Diaz singled with one out in the second, then Mauricio Dubon walked; a four-seam fastball from Eovaldi induced an inning-ending double play from Corey Julks.
He didn’t give up another hit in his final five innings pitched. He scattered three walks, but induced two more double plays — one in the fourth and another in the seventh — to limit any damage. He didn’t allow a single Astros base runner to reach second base from his third-through-seventh innings.
Eovaldi lowered his season ERA to 2.64, the third-lowest among qualified American League starters. He’s gone 9-1 with a 2.05 ERA in his last 14 starts. Saturday marked his sixth scoreless outing since April 29.
And it was a big one in front of a sold-out crowd. The Astros have closed the gap in the AL West standings. Friday night’s loss didn’t help. The two remaining games in this four-game series could do something serious to either side’s momentum before the All-Star break.
Point being: it was the kind of moment for which you’d want a guy such as Eovaldi — who once pitched eight innings of one-run ball in a 2018 World Series win against the Los Angeles Dodgers — on the mound.
“I feel like [big games] amps me up more, and it just brings the focus, takes it to another level,” Eovaldi said. “Especially when you’ve got the crowd, the atmosphere. We know the importance of this series — the Astros have been playing good baseball, and they’ve been staying right behind us the entire time.”
Concerns regarding Eovaldi’s velocity were quelled, too. His four-seam fastball averaged 94.4 miles per hour in his last start against the New York Yankees and 93.7 mph in his second-to-last start against the Chicago White Sox. Both were well below his season average. The Alvin native equated it to a “mechanical issue.”
But, on Saturday, Eovaldi’s four-seamer ran 96.1 mph on average — a slight tick upward from his season average — and topped out at 99.1 mph.
“I felt a lot better,” Eovaldi said. “In between starts, I worked on a few things mechanical, just trying to shorten up my arm path. I felt like I was getting longer and longer. I felt like it helped out today.”
Josh Sborz, after a month of June in which he allowed just one earned run, pitched a perfect eighth inning. Joe Barlow retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth before Alex Bregman doubled and Kyle Tucker homered to make it 5-2. Will Smith replaced him and needed just three pitches for a one-out save, his 15th of the season.
The Rangers peppered Houston starter Hunter Brown with 10 hits in four innings, then scored another two off of the Astros’ bullpen in the seventh and eighth. Texas’ All-Star starters reinforced their titles: second baseman Marcus Semien went 3 for 4 with an RBI and a stolen base, shortstop Corey Seager went 2 for 4 with a RBI, Heim went 3 for 4 with two doubles and third baseman Josh Jung delivered an RBI double in the seventh inning to extend the Rangers’ lead to 4-0.
“We had our top guy on the mound who did exactly what he’s been doing the whole year,” Semien said. “Hoping for good news [Sunday] for him.”
The complete All-Star rosters will be unveiled Sunday. Eovaldi, quite possibly a shoo-in already, only helped his case Saturday.
“It would be a huge honor to go out there,” Eovaldi said. “We’ve got four guys starting in the game, that’s hard enough as it is ... to be able to go out there, and not only to represent the Rangers, but to play alongside them, it’d be a huge honor.”
Hey, it’d be another big game, too.
