Texas Rangers and Nathan Eovaldi’s Heroics: Carrying the Torch for DeGrom

The Texas Rangers went out and bought a rotation this offseason and so far it has paid off. Jacob DeGrom is going to be Jacob DeGrom, injuries and all. Both Jon Gray and Andrew Heaney have begun to heat up as well with Heaney allowing only four runs over his last two outings and Gray allowing one while going at least seven innings in both of them.

The other man who signed this offseason is Nathan Eovaldi. Outside of a shaky start against the Royals where he allowed 6 runs over the course of 5 innings, Eovaldi was consistent and reliable , never allowing more than 3 earned runs over the course of a start. But DeGrom went down with forearm tightness and someone had to somehow fill a massive hole as the ace. Eovaldi fit right in

No Texas Rangers pitcher has been better than Nathan Eovaldi their last three starts

Since April 29th rolled around Eovaldi unlocked something we haven’t seen since the 2018 postseason. Over the course of his last three outings Eovaldi has an ERA of 0, 25 Ks over 25.1 IP, .131 BA, and only 11 hits against.

By far his best game came against the Yankees where he threw a complete game, with 8 strikeouts, and no walks. Eovaldi increased his average fastball velocity up to 97.1 mph which was up from his typical 95 mph. That uptick in velo, along with a 69% Strike% forced Yankee hitters to act early and often in counts as to avoid falling behind. They didn’t put it in play hard if they did manage to make contact as indicated by his .150 BABIP.

This momentum would carry into his future outings where he would continue to rack up innings and keep his fastball velocity up. Maintaining his absurd pace for two games is difficult enough but doing it against divisional opponents is another thing entirely. His fastball continues to be his best pitch and he will look to carry this momentum into his next outing.

Every scoreless out recorded is a new milestone for Eovaldi, look out because he is scalding hot.