ANAHEIM – This is Nathan Eovaldi's favorite time of the year.
“August to September,” he said. “You’re into the hunt. It’s the build-up for the postseason. We’ve been playing really good baseball.”
Mostly good baseball -- notwithstanding the first two games of the Rangers’ road trip, which were marred by mistakes that proved to be their undoing.
But Eovaldi shouldered the load on the mound for the Rangers in Wednesday’s finale, giving his team seven full innings with just one run allowed on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts and a 6-3 win — the 100th of his career.
“He’s just a joy to watch,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “He got in some jams and he’s got such a tough makeup, has that ability to make a pitch when he has to.
“Congrats to him. We needed it in the worst way.”
On Monday and Tuesday, Eovaldi saw his team play in a way that he felt was uncharacteristic of the Rangers baseball that he knows. They were walking batters and leaving balls over the middle of the plate on the mound, making bad plays on defense and getting too aggressive on the basepaths.
He needed to calm things down.
“Tonight, it was important for me to go out there and try not to allow any runs and leave us in the ballgame,” he said. “And fortunately, I was able to stay in the game into the seventh, we were able to score more runs and come out on top.”
There were two instances where Eovaldi’s mettle was tested on Wednesday.
After walking Logan O’Hoppe to lead off the bottom of the third inning, Eovaldi gave up a pair of hits to load the bases with just one out in the inning and Mike Trout stepping up to the plate. Eovaldi was aggressive, getting a first-pitch fastball called for a strike. He then got Trout to chase below the zone twice, fouling off a cutter before whiffing on a curveball for strike three.
Nolan Schanuel flied out to right in the next at-bat.
And while Eovaldi did give up his lone run of the game in the following inning on an RBI single from Luis Rengifo that capped off a two-out rally, Eovaldi locked in again. He got Gustavo Campero to harmlessly ground out to first, stranding two Angels runners on the corners and limiting the damage.
“He’s so competitive,” Bochy said. “He has that intentional fortitude that you love and that maniacal focus, man. Every pitch, he keeps his poise out there. He gets in a jam, he just gets better. That’s what good pitchers do -- great pitchers -- and I consider him a great pitcher.”
Eovaldi’s clutch performance was rewarded by an avalanche of four runs in the top of the eighth -- all of which came with two outs in the inning. Adolis García hit a two-run homer that gave Texas some breathing room. But Wyatt Langford kept it going when he struck out but took first on a wild pitch.
That was followed by three straight singles -- including one that pitcher Sam Bachman just couldn’t field in time -- to load the bases. Catcher Jonah Heim then drew a walk to force in the final run of the game.
For Eovaldi, getting his team in position to get a win like the one on Wednesday is something he takes a lot of pride in. But that level of focus and determination is a byproduct of his preparation — and the bumps along the way throughout his 14 seasons in the big leagues.
“You learn a lot from the game,” he said. “You learn a lot from past experiences, through your failures, through your success. Going out there in that situation in that time, there’s a lot of focus and attention that goes into it.”