ARLINGTON -- For much of the Rangers’ current homestand, the external chatter has surrounded the potential return of Max Scherzer, who has yet to pitch this season thanks to offseason back surgery and a nagging nerve issue in his thumb.

That’s fair. After all, Scherzer is a surefire future Hall of Famer and will no doubt provide a boost to a struggling Rangers team, even if he’s not at his peak any longer.

Scherzer hasn’t been activated yet. Maybe the real ace has been here all along. It’s all tongue in cheek, but that’s who Nathan Eovaldi has been for the Rangers for a year now.

So while whispers continued surrounding Scherzer, Eovaldi took the mound on Friday night and dealt another quality start as he carried the Rangers to a 6-2 win over the Royals at Globe Life Field.

“That’s what he does, you know?” said Nathaniel Lowe, who collected three hits in the win. “Solo homer, who cares? The rest of it, he was ahead in the count, putting away guys, inducing weak contact, striking people out. That’s just what he does.”

The 34-year-old right-hander allowed two runs on four hits and a walk, striking out six Royals batters. He shut down the middle of Kansas City’s lineup, holding Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin to 0-for-12 with four swinging strikeouts.

The two runs Eovaldi surrendered came from the nine-hole hitter, first with a solo homer from Kyle Isbel and later with an RBI single from pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson. Eovaldi said he felt like his mechanics were a bit off in those innings and that’s why he got behind in the counts, allowing Royals hitters to jump on mistakes, which Eovaldi didn’t make many of throughout his outing.

“I think I was just working ahead,” Eovaldi said of shutting down the heart of the Royals’ lineup. “I felt like I was able to get ahead of most of those guys, and when you're ahead I feel like you're in the driver's seat and you got to make good pitches after that. It's a lot harder when you're down in the count. If you’re 2-0, I feel like anybody can hurt you, especially that part of their lineup. If you can limit them from getting on base, I feel like you're doing a good job.”

The Rangers' de facto ace -- as he’s been since Jacob deGrom went down last season with Tommy John surgery -- is even better at home, too.

Eovaldi entered the day with a 5.06 ERA on the road, but a 2.09 ERA in seven starts at Globe Life Field. The Rangers were 5-2 in those seven games, the only losses being a pair of one-run defeats -- both decided after Eovaldi’s exit in the eighth inning or later.

After the win, he has now allowed two or fewer runs in all eight of his starts at Globe Life Field this season, joining Kyle Gibson in 2021 as the only pitchers in Rangers history (since 1972) to permit two or fewer earned runs in each of their first eight home starts of a campaign.

The Alvin, Texas, native is 11-3 with a 3.16 ERA over 22 starts in his career at Globe Life Field (including postseason).

“I do like pitching here in front of the home crowd and everything,” Eovaldi said. “I've enjoyed that. I tried to take a lot of pride in pitching on the road as well and just trying to get their crowd out of the game.”

As the Rangers continue looking to get back on track in the win column, the starting pitchers have produced quality starts in a season-high three straight games now (Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney and Eovaldi). It’s the rotation’s longest such streak since Aug. 13-17, 2023 (Dane Dunning, Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery and Jon Gray).

“That’s the goal, right?” Eovaldi added. “Six [innings] is the minimum. We want to try to go as deep as we can into the game. I feel like if the starters can go deep, you're going to give us a good chance to win the ballgame, right?”

While Eovaldi did what he usually does, the Rangers offense broke out for six runs, posting a five-run inning for the second time this homestand. They had no innings of five-or-more runs in the previous 35 contests (May 8-June 17).

For the first time in what feels like forever, things may be turning around.

“It's good to see these guys having some success and doing what they are good at,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “That's knocking in runs. But it all started with Nate. I mean, what a great job he did. Six solid innings, kept us there and gave us a chance to win. A well-played game. We pitched well and got some big hits.”