Rangers 8, Braves 3
Rangers 8, Braves 3
- A win. A good win.
- A win that featured the return of Nathan Eovaldi, and even though he wasn’t at his sharpest, he provided five shutout innings for Texas.
- Eovaldi issued four walks, the most he’s had in a game in over a year — he last issued four walks on June 15 of 2024. He threw 33 balls in 86 pitches, with his command not what we are used to.
- But hey, he also got 15 swings and misses on those 86 pitches, and that’s pretty good.
- Nathan Eovaldi now has a 1.50 ERA on the season. He almost certainly won’t qualify for the ERA title — he would need 66 innings the rest of the way — but that’s still a remarkably small number.
- The Rangers ended up using every reliever except Jon Gray and Cole Winn to finish the final four innings. Jacob Latz got pulled after just three batters, one of whom homered, with another walking. Shawn Armstrong only threw two pitches, retiring the final batter of the eighth, and then getting replaced by Caleb Boushley in the ninth when the Rangers scored four runs in the 8th to shift things from a save situation to a blowout. Boushley got pulled after only retiring one of five batters in the ninth, with Robert Garcia tapped to get the final two outs.
- That’s probably more relievers than you’d like to use in one game.
- The bats did some things, as reflected by the fact that there were eight runs that came across. Singletons in the first, second, fourth and fifth before the four run outburst in the eighth.
- Jonah Heim homered, which is good, and he also drew a walk.
- Nathan Eovaldi hit 95.4 mph with his fastball, averaging 93.6 mph. Jacob Webb touched 93.7 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz’s fastball reached 94.4 mph. Hoby Milner’s fastball hit 89.1 mph. Shawn Armstrong threw one fastball that was 93.7 mph. Caleb Boushley maxed out at 94.1 mph with his sinker. Robert Garcia hit 95.5 mph with his fastball.
- Wyatt Langford had a 103.1 mph double. Adolis Garcia had a 101.7 mph ground out. Sam Haggerty had a 101.7 mph double. Josh Smith had a 100.7 mph ground out. Josh Jung had a 100.6 mph single and a 100.2 mph fly out. Marcus Semien had a 100.5 mph lineout.
- Texas is a half game back of the third Wild Card spot and a game back of the second Wild Card spot. Things are trending in the right direction.