Eovaldi lowers ERA to 1.58 to close out dominant first half

HOUSTON -- At age 35, Nathan Eovaldi is doing some serious shoving.

Easing the load on a weary bullpen, the right-hander allowed one run on five hits in 7 2/3 innings Sunday as the Rangers went into the All-Star break on a high note, beating the Astros, 5-1, and winning the three-game weekend series at Daikin Park.

“Nate put us on his back today,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “We needed some length, and what a great job he did.”

Eovaldi, who missed a month after exiting his May 27 start with elbow inflammation, lowered his ERA to 1.58. He struck out eight, all after the third inning, and walked one during a 102-pitch outing.

“Early in the game, I was using a lot of off-speed pitches so I could still use my fastball there toward the end,” Eovaldi (7-3) said. “And once I started really mixing the fastball away and all those other offspeed pitches, I was able to keep them a little bit more off-balance. And I felt like as the game went on my splitter got better, and when that happens to me, I usually have some pretty good success out there.”

Eovaldi has allowed one or no runs in 10 of his last 11 starts, including the May 27 appearance in which he left after two innings against the Blue Jays. The exception was his first game back, when, without a rehab assignment, he gave up three runs in three innings against the Mariners on June 27.

Eovaldi said this stacks up with the best grooves of his career and was quick to offer an explanation: a curveball that has been particularly effective among his pitch mix.

“It’s so slow, a lot of the hitters just tend to give up on it,” he said. “ If I can get ahead of guys 0-1, 0-2, and they haven’t seen my splitter, fastball or cutter, I can have some pretty good success. I feel like I don’t have to work as hard since I have a good pitch mix and I’m using all my pitches. So when I do need to bear down, I still have a little bit more in the tank where I can take it to the next level if I need it.”

Eovaldi induced 14 whiffs from the Astros on Sunday, including nine off his splitter and four off his curve. A splitter or curve finished five of his six swinging strikeouts. Victor Caratini and Cooper Hummel struck out looking when Eovaldi snuck fastballs past them.

“He just got better,” Bochy said. “He was hitting his spots, wasn’t trying to power his way through them. He just did a great job of pitching, and that’s why we let him go back out there [in the eighth].”

Having pitched 91 innings in the Rangers’ first 97 games, Eovaldi goes into the break six innings shy of qualifying as MLB’s ERA leader. Does he pay attention to such things?

“Of course,” replied Eovaldi, whose 3.75 ERA in 2021 is his lowest in a qualifying season. “You go out there and you want to compete and have success and represent the Rangers. You’ve got one of the best pitchers in the game to do it with -- [Jacob] deGrom -- and we feed off each other’s success. All those things matter to me, and being able to be in that category means a lot.”

Since the All-Star Game’s inception in 1933, the Rangers (48-49) are the ninth team to enter the break with the Major Leagues’ best ERA (3.28) and fielding percentage (.991), joining the 1939 Yankees, 1940 Reds, 1941 Dodgers, 1944 Cardinals, 1949 Indians, 1969 Orioles, 2016 Nationals and 2024 Braves. None of those teams’ winning percentage at the break was lower than .558 (2024 Braves), and all but the ’49 Indians, who were the defending champs, made the postseason.

Hitting has been the issue for the Rangers, and with a cumulative slash line of .232/.300/.376, they rank in the bottom third in all three categories. If Texas can get its offense in full gear -- it scored at least five runs in 10 of its last 13 games before the break -- a push to the postseason is hardly out of the question, particularly with deGrom and Eovaldi as the 1-2 rotation punch. The Rangers are 8 1/2 games behind Houston in the AL West and only 3 1/2 behind Seattle for the final wild card spot. And 36 of the Rangers’ remaining 65 games are at home.

A resurgent Marcus Semien is helping. On Sunday, he gave the Rangers their final run with an eighth-inning homer that was the 250th of his career.

“He’s amazing,” Bochy said of his second baseman, who was hitting .193 through May but is batting .300 since. “He’s out there every day, and the way he’s playing now, he’s the one that stabilizes everything.”