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Texas Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi got battered around by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night, ending an impressive pitching streak. Eovaldi allowed three home runs in the game, to end his streak of allowing just one run or fewer in 13 of his last 14 games.
Texas came back from a 5-1 deficit to defeat Arizona, 7-6, in 10 innings.
“That's all that matters at the end of the day,” Eovaldi said, per the Associated Press. “Regardless how well I do out there or anything, it's about the team winning the games. Especially with where we are at this point of the season and everything.”
Eovaldi posted a no-decision after his teammates were able to mount an outstanding rally in extra innings to win the game. Texas slugger Rowdy Tellez homered to tie the game in the ninth. Then Texas nabbed victory from the jaws of defeat, after Rangers slugger Jake Burger posted a pinch-hit single in the 10th.
“Nate's been so, so good. And he just showed that, hey, you're gonna have occasional games where you don't quite command it as well. And they took advantage of it,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But he's picked us up so many times. So man, what a great job by the boys. And find a way to win that ball game with just a gutty effort by everybody, bullpen, hitters. We needed this one.”
The Rangers are now 61-59 on the year.
Nathan Eovaldi is having an outstanding season for the Rangers
Eovaldi has done something quite outstanding this year. He is in rare company by going so many starts without allowing more than one run.
“When he pitched one-hit ball over eight innings in a 2-0 win over the New York Yankees last Tuesday, it was the 13th time in a 14-game span allowing one or zero runs. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson is the only pitcher since 1900 to record that kind of streak, according to STATS, and he did it in 1968, the season he won both the NL Cy Young and MVP awards,” the Associated Press reported.
The Rangers pitcher thinks he can do even better.
“I didn't feel like my splitter was as good as it has been. I thought I threw a lot of pitches up at the top of the strike zone, and I feel like that's where a lot the damage was,” Eovaldi added. “I fell behind in some of the counts. The (Geraldo) Perdomo at-bat, I yanked a fastball right down the middle. … The two-run shots, they hurt.”
The Rangers host the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.
