'He's a horse': Eovaldi's scoreless streak hits 20 innings

ANAHEIM -- Nathan Eovaldi took the mound in the eighth inning at Angel Stadium on Saturday preparing to face the top three hitters in Los Angeles’ lineup: No. 2 prospect Zach Neto and two former American League MVPs in Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

The Rangers held a three-run lead, not insurmountable for any opponent given the recent struggles of Texas’ bullpen. But “Nasty Nate” buckled down, easily getting through the eighth inning with a swinging strikeout and two groundouts, preserving the Rangers’ lead and setting up a big offensive ninth inning.

The Alvin, Texas, native tossed eight shutout innings in the Rangers’ 10-1 victory over the Angels, halting a two-game skid and evening the series. Eovaldi bullied the Angels' powerful lineup, allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out five.

He worked all five of his pitches, inducing 10 swings and misses and ground balls up and down the lineup to allow the defense to work behind him to get quick outs.

“He’s a horse,” said Angels manager Phil Nevin. “He’s one of the best in our game, and he showed it tonight.”

The start also extended Eovaldi’s current scoreless streak to a career-high 20 innings, besting his previous high of 19 innings in 2018. It is the longest active scoreless streak in MLB, and tied for the third-longest in the Majors in 2023.

“I'm not really sure [what the key has been to the streak],” Eovaldi said. “I feel maybe the one big difference has been my ability to pitch inside. I feel like that's been opening up a lot of my other offspeed pitches down and away. I felt like tonight I wasn't quite commanding the zone as well as I wanted to, but I was able to make the big pitches when I needed to.

“We were able to put up runs. We put up the three, and it gives me a little bit of wiggle room so I can be a little bit more aggressive and attack the hitters as well.”

Though he was at 107 pitches, Eovaldi may have returned to the mound for the ninth inning with a taxed bullpen coming off back-to-back blown leads in the last two games. But the Rangers' offense broke the game open with a seven-run top of the ninth, leaving manager Bruce Bochy without the opportunity to even try to make a tough decision.

When asked if he wanted to go out for the ninth inning and attempt another shutout, Eovaldi chuckled and nodded.

“I feel like anytime they're gonna let me go out there to finish the game, I want to try to do it,” Eovaldi said. “I felt good. I felt like I had gas left in the tank. I would have loved to go back out there and finish the game. But I mean, anytime we can score a lot of runs, I also understand that scenario.”

With Jacob deGrom on the injured list with right elbow inflammation, Eovaldi is currently the de facto ace of the Rangers' staff. He’s risen to the occasion. In the two starts he’s made since deGrom's injury, he’s thrown 17 shutout innings, with 13 strikeouts and just two walks.

“You’ve got to have somebody to stop a tough loss or even a little [losing] streak, and Nate's done that,” Bochy said. “We have a good rotation. It’ll be up to all of us to pick it up a little bit, I guess, and Nate certainly has done that. We have a lot of confidence in the rest of our guys and until we get Jacob back, we have to have good starting pitching.”

With this start coming off the back of his first career nine-inning shutout, Eovaldi is the first MLB pitcher with back-to-back scoreless starts of eight or more innings since St. Louis’ Jack Flaherty on Sept. 3 and Sept. 8, 2019. The last American League pitcher to accomplish the feat was Houston’s Dallas Keuchel on June 25 and June 30, 2015.

Eovaldi is also the first Rangers pitcher to log consecutive starts of at least eight shutout innings since Martín Pérez did it across three straight starts in April 2014.

“He's such a competitor,” Bochy said. “You can see it and he's got a great, great pace. He's got four pitches, a really good fastball, obviously, but also a nice cutter, he's got the split and the curveball and he can throw them at any time, sometimes three, four times through the order. That's a good mix to have, when you can change it up.”