Texas Rangers Remind Nathan Eovaldi of Former World Champs

The Texas Rangers, owners of the best offense in baseball, remind Nathan Eovaldi of a former World Series champion he knows well.

Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi is the reigning American League Pitcher of the Month and is 8-2 after cruising to a 12-3 win over the Seattle Mariners earlier this week.

Amid all of the offense, it’s worth noting that Eovaldi threw six innings of one-hit baseball.

But the Rangers are doing near-unprecedented things on offense, and Eovaldi knows it.

In fact, he’s only seen an offense do things like the Rangers once before — and it led him to a World Series title in 2018.

“I mean, Sandy (León) and I talked about in the dugout (on Sunday), it reminds us a lot of that 2018 (Boston Red Sox),” Eovaldi said.

Both Eovaldi and León were teammate on that team that beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games to win the World Series. That team won the American League East with 108 victories, which was a franchise record.

That team boasted the Majors’ top hitter by average, Mookie Betts (.346), who was also the American League MVP. J.D. Martinez batted .330, second best in MLB. The Opening-Day lineup also included Andrew Benintendi, Hanley Ramírez, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Christian Vázquez.

Also on the roster were Dustin Pedroia, along with former Rangers Ian Kinsler and Mitch Moreland.

That team batted .268/.339/.453/.792 with 208 home runs and 829 RBI.

This Rangers offense might be better.

“You’ve got a threat all the way from the bottom of the lineup to the top, and you feel like anytime we can roll it over to the top with guys on base and those runs are gonna come home,” Eovaldi said.

The AL West-leading Rangers (40-20) have the best offense in baseball entering the Wednesday night series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Texas leads MLB in runs scored (386) and in runs scored per game. The 368 runs are the most scored through 60 games in franchise history, and the most for any MLB team since Colorado scored 386 in 2001. 

The Rangers have an MLB-high 16 games in which they've scored 10 or more runs, the most through 60 games since the 1999 Seattle Mariners (also 16). The Rangers also have five games with 15 or more runs, which is best in MLB and is tied for the most in franchise history (1998). 

The Rangers have batted .373 (57-for-153) in the last four days, with a .334 average (98-for-293) in the last eight games to rise from .270 to an MLB-high .279. The Rangers also have a .293 batting average in the last 44 games beginning April 18 to rise from .239. 

The Rangers rank in the Top 2 in the AL in the following categories: hits (1st, 586), on-base percentage (1st, .346), OPS (2nd, .807), slugging (2nd, .462), total bases (2nd, 969), doubles (2nd, 130) and extra-base hits (2nd, 217).

Texas also has an MLB-best .337 batting average with runners in scoring position.

More From SI’s Inside The Rangers:

1. Texas Rangers New Nike City Connect Jersey Pay Homage to Dallas-Fort Worth
2. Texas Rangers in Play to Sing Shohei Ohtani
3. Arlington Mayor Says Rougned Odor ‘Punch’ Mural to Stay
4. Texas Rangers Clubhouse ‘Insane’ Says Reliever
5. No Pride in Texas, Rangers Lone Team Without Pride Night
6. MLB, Texas Rangers Win Bally Sports Broadcast Suit
7. AL West is 'Ours,' Not Astros Says Texas Rangers First Baseman
8. Derek Holland Making Baseball Comeback
9. Bally Sports Southwest to Televise Nearly All Rangers Games
10. Texas Rangers Unveil Exciting New Ballpark Food

---

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.