Thoughts on an 8-1 Rangers win

Nathan Eovaldi doing work, the bats battering, the late innings being low stress because the Rangers’ lead is so large. After the first two games of the season, where Eovaldi failed to go five innings in either game and allowed 11 runs, rumblings began as to whether Eovaldi still had it, if age was catching up with the 36 year old. The five run outing in the season opener was an instance where he pitched better than the line score reflected, but his second outing was inherently unpleasant.

Last time out, Eovaldi picked up a win and a Quality Start with a six inning, two run outing, quieting the criticism a bit. And then in this game, in a hitter friendly minor league park, against an Oakland Sacramento Las Vegas A’s team that has a number of potent bats, Eovaldi cruised. He didn’t allow a base runner until Max Muncy (that funky Muncy) singled to lead off the third, then promptly generated a GIDP to erase him.

The A’s put runners on first and second in both the fifth and sixth, with a single and a reversed on replay HBP in the former and a pair of walks in the latter, but Eovaldi kept them off the board. Eovaldi looked early on like he might be in line for a complete game, given how efficient he was — he needed just 29 pitches through three — and probably could have gone back out for the eighth had the Rangers not put a bunch of runs on the board in the top of the inning and made it a blowout. 13 swings and misses generated by Eovaldi, seven of them on the splitter, which he, as per usual, leaned on heavily, throwing it 32 times.

Luis Curvelo came into the game for the eighth did his job, which was to throw strikes, move things along, and keep things from getting interesting. Curvelo needed just 19 pitches to get through eight batters over two innings. Lawrence Butler homered off of him, spoiling the shutout, so we could get made about that if we were feeling churlish.