Two bad pitches doom Texas Rangers, Nathan Eovaldi in Opening Day defeat
Nathan Eovaldi found a rhythm and flashed good stuff Thursday in the Texas Rangers' season opener, but two home runs in 4/23 innings doomed his outing (Bill Streicher-Imagn Images). The Texas Rangers lost Thursday on Opening Day, 5-3, to the Phillies, who saw ace Cristopher Sanchez outpitch Nathan Eovaldi. PHILADELPHIA — So, a pitcher gives up five runs in 4 2/3 innings on Opening Day, and his manager says afterward that he was really good.
The pitcher was Texas Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi, the manager was Skip Schumaker, and he wasn’t wrong. The Rangers’ offense couldn’t do much of anything over the first eight innings, particularly the first six against ace left-hander Cristopher Sanchez. But the way the hitters finished, after the bullpen delivered 3 1/3 scoreless innings, also boosted Schumaker’s mood.
In the end, after a postgame shower and a beer to contemplate things, the Rangers didn’t have a terrible day despite their 5-3 season-opening loss to the Phillies . “I think we’re going to be OK,” Schumaker said. “I d love to fight at the end, and I think we’re just going to be just fine if we continue to have the at-bats like we did toward the end of the game.
” Hear from #Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi after he issued five runs and took the loss on Opening Day. pic. twitter.
com/E8uVvw7h6g — DLLS Rangers (@DLLS_Rangers) March 27, 2026 Eovaldi surrendered five runs on two homers, a first-inning two-run shot to Kyle Schwarber and a fifth-inning three-run circuit clout to Alex Bohm. They were mistake pitches, not the wrong pitch but the wrong execution, and both traveled over the fence at Citizen Bank Park. In between the blasts, Eovaldi struck out seven and didn’t issues any walks.