How Eovaldi's wicked splitter generated a career-high 23 whiffs

ST. PETERSBURG -- In the Rangers’ clubhouse, Nathan Eovaldi is a splitter whisperer of sorts.

The right-hander, whose splitter is his second-most used pitch, has helped multiple guys on the Rangers' pitching staff with refining their splitter, most notably Dane Dunning, who added a forkball this spring.

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During Wednesday’s 4-1 win against the Rays at Tropicana Field, the splitter whisperer broke out the pitch more than he ever had as a Ranger. Eovaldi threw 44 splitters, the most he’s thrown in an outing since he threw 48 on Aug. 24, 2015, as a member of the Yankees. That was his only other career game with 40 or more splitters prior to Wednesday.

“It’s a big pitch for him,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “He’ll adjust to the lineup, and he’s got a great feel out there for what he wants to throw. He had a good feel for it, and if he has a good feel for the split he's gonna throw it more probably and he felt that tonight.”

Eovaldi, who made 10 starts for the Rays in 2018, ultimately tossed seven scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking just one to earn his first victory of the season after Corey Seager put the Rangers ahead 1-0 with a solo homer in the sixth inning. Eovaldi only surrendered four hits, and no baserunner got past second base.

Eovaldi said the extreme splitter usage was both a part of the plan initially, and something that developed as the game went on.

“Obviously we got to kind of settle in and everything, but I felt like I had a really good feel for the splitter right out of the gate,” Eovaldi said. “Again, trying to attack these guys inside, they're really aggressive out there.

“Jonah [Heim] and I were able to locate the ball inside today and use the splitter really well. Anytime we have that kind of command right out of the gate, it's good for us. I feel like during the second and third time through the lineup, we were able to locate the cutter down and away just because we were so active inside.”

This marked Eovaldi’s fifth start of seven or more scoreless innings since the beginning of last season, tied with Houston’s Framber Valdez for third most in the American League behind Eduardo Rodríguez and Toronto’s Chris Bassitt (six each).

Including last year’s Wild Card clincher, Eovaldi is 3-0 with a 0.46 ERA and 0.81 WHIP in his last three starts against the Rays. Including the postseason, Eovaldi’s team has won each of his last eight starts against Tampa Bay, dating back to his time with the Red Sox. Over those eight starts, he’s posted a 2.45 ERA with a .217 opponent average.

Even on a day like today, when the splitter is the dominant pitch, Eovaldi's stuff was up across the board. He recorded a career-high 23 swings-and-misses, the most by any pitcher in MLB this season and most by a Ranger since Dunning had 23 on Aug. 13, 2023, in San Francisco.

Of his 23 swings-and-misses, 13 came on the splitter, five on the four-seamer, three on the curveball and one each on the cutter and slider.

“When I'm able to command that inside part of the plate, it opens up my game with all my other pitches,” Eovaldi said. “I was able to land some curveballs for first-pitch strikes and I was able to take it down and away as well. I thought Jonah did a fantastic job calling the game. I didn't feel like we had to shake too much, and if we did, we were right where we wanted to be.”

The best example of that came in the bottom of the fifth inning, after Ben Rortvedt poked a two-out double into the right-field corner for what felt like the Rays' first real threat of the day. Eovaldi then dialed it up against Jose Siri, generating three straight swinging strikes on a 78.8 mph curveball, 95.5 four-seamer and a 96.8 four-seamer to end the inning.

"The problem was their guy, Eovaldi. .... It seems like he dials it up against us,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “He's really good, but he had great stuff today. Committed to the split and the offspeed pitches.

"He kind of stayed away from his fastball until the end where he was still dialing it at 95, 97 miles per hour. But the split is the pitch that is a big equalizer. He can pitch off that if he's feeling it, and today I think he was really feeling the split."