CINCINNATI -- Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux watched from the visitors' dugout at Great American Ball Park as Nathan Eovaldi twirled a gem against the Reds.
It was only right that a Maddux was in the house for the occasion.
When Eovaldi got Cincinnati superstar Elly De La Cruz to ground out and end the ninth inning, he completed a Maddux: a start in which a pitcher tosses a shutout on fewer than 100 pitches, aptly named for Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who is Mike’s younger brother.
Eovaldi completed the effort on just 99 pitches, making it the Rangers' first Maddux since Colby Lewis on Sept. 11, 2015, against Oakland at Globe Life Park. The last shutout for both the Rangers and Eovaldi came on April 29, 2023, against the Yankees at Globe Life Field.
“When I heard it was 99 pitches, I was like, ‘Oh, sweet!’” Eovaldi said. “It’s great to throw a Maddux.”
“I had a feeling this name would come up,” Maddux joked postgame. “How about that?! Evo was great, man. I would say thrifty. His highest-pitch inning was 15. That keeps you fresh.”
Mike, who has coached for five MLB clubs following his 15-year career as a big leaguer, last witnessed a Maddux pitched by one of his players on Aug. 22, 2022, when Jordan Montgomery shut out the Cubs as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
With the Rangers' offense scuffling for the second game in a row, it only took one solo home run from Wyatt Langford and one heroic effort from the club’s ace to split the series. The combination of the two propelled the Rangers to a 1-0 victory to follow up an 11-run loss in Monday's series opener.
Eovaldi said he was thinking about going deep into the game the second he stepped on the field -- though he always is. But especially with a taxed bullpen, he wanted to eat as many innings as possible to keep them rested going into the series finale on Wednesday.
“It's [his] second game of the season, and we had a [taxed] bullpen,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “And we're not hitting right now. We're struggling with putting runs on the board. He just took it upon himself to find a way to win the game for us. That's who he is. He wants to do whatever he can to help us win a game. I'm sure he probably was thinking about the bullpen. That's who he is.”
Eovaldi became the first pitcher in baseball this year to go eight -- and then nine -- full innings.
Eovaldi was perfect through four and faced the minimum through five thanks to a double-play ball after the first hit of the game, which was a single from Gavin Lux. He only allowed three more hits and walked none.
“He never fell into a pattern,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “He used all his pitches. He established against the lefties, a fastball in and cut it, he’d go to the split and he flipped over some breaking balls for strike one. He had everything working. He got into a rhythm but never a pattern.”
Maddux said he knew Eovaldi was going to have a good game after watching his warmups. Catcher Kyle Higashioka said once he struck out the side in the third inning, completing one perfect turn through the order, he knew it was going to be a special outing.
“His command was really good tonight,” Maddux said. “Command always wins. Location always wins. I don't care what your stuff is, you put good stuff in good spots, good things are going to happen. That proved tonight. It was kind of a dogfight, because their guys on the other end were pretty good too. So a great win for Evo. Great win for the Rangers.”
Interestingly enough, Eovaldi’s velocity was down across the board, specifically with the four-seamer (down 1.1 mph) and splitter (down 1.5 mph). But that didn’t matter for the Rangers' ace, who collected eight strikeouts: four on his splitter, two on the curveball, one on the cutter and one on the fastball.
“I don't worry about velo,” Bochy said. “Velo is not important to me. Yeah, everybody gets caught up in the velo sometimes, but it's the command of it, the life of it that matters. He had good finish on it, so that's what I thought was working well for him.”
This is only the most recent saga in Eovaldi’s lore as a Texas Ranger.
Over the past two seasons, the Alvin, Texas, native has been the ace of the staff, as Jacob deGrom spent most of 2023-24 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. In turn, Eovaldi has posted a 3.72 ERA in his first two years with Texas, while also going 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA in his six postseason outings in 2023 en route to his second career World Series ring.
Big Game Nate has shown up every step of the way.
“He's as good as I've seen, as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He's so good. He's a pro out there. He wants to be out there. It's the makeup of the guy. He’s a tremendous competitor, and he wanted to finish this one.”