Texas Rangers Ace Nathan Eovaldi Makes All-Star Case Before Astros Manager

Texas Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi is second in the American League in wins and third in ERA.

© Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

At this point, is there any way that Nathan Eovaldi gets left off the American League All-Star team?

Not only has Eovaldi become the ace of the Texas Rangers staff – a spot once reserved for Jacob deGrom – he’s a true Cy Young Award contender and one of the best pitchers in MLB.

Eovaldi earned his team-leading 10th win of the season after tossing seven scoreless frames in Saturday’s 5-2 win over the rival Houston Astros at Globe Life Field. The hard-throwing right-hander gave up just two hits, walked four and struck out five on 97 pitches (58 strikes) as the Rangers evened the series at a game apiece.

“Seven solid innings,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “Just did a terrific job, didn’t he?”

All-Star pitchers will be named Sunday at 4:30 p.m. CT and Astros manager Dusty Baker helps decide the staff for the AL. He probably won’t need much convincing on Eovaldi.

The Rangers, certainly, are sold.

“We had our top guy on the mound and he did exactly what he’s been doing all year,” All-Star second baseman Marcus Semien said. “Hoping for good news [Sunday] for him with the All-Star Game.”

Not that Eovaldi (10-3) needs to do any self-promotion. He made the All-Star team in 2021 with the Boston Red Sox.

“It’d be a huge honor to be able to go out there,” Eovaldi said of a second All-Star selection. “We’ve got four of our guys starting in the game. I feel that’s hard enough as it is to have four guys. They’ve done an outstanding job this season, and all four of them had a great game [Saturday] as well.

“To be able to go out there, and not only to be able to represent the Rangers, but to be able to play alongside those guys would be a huge honor.”

He is just the second Texas pitcher since 2013 with at least 10 wins prior to the All-Star break, joining Lance Lynn (11-4) in 2019. Eovaldi is second in the AL in wins, third in ERA (2.64) and has reached double digits in victories for just the third time in his 13-year career.

Questions surfaced in recent starts about a drop in velocity, but Eovaldi appeared to get stronger as the game wore on Saturday. He held the Astros hitless (0-for-13) after the second inning and induced season-high three ground-ball double plays.

“He was good,” Baker said, according to MLB.com. “The thing about him is he throws ground balls. I think he threw up double plays every time we got something going. I noticed he’s leading the league in double plays.”

Eovaldi worked out a few mechanical issues between starts, including shortening his arm path which really benefited his curveball and slider.

“I feel like you have to set the tone by attacking the hitters and I was able to do that from the first inning,” he said.

Eovaldi not only goes deep in games, he shuts teams down. He has four appearances of at least seven scoreless frames and has gone at least seven innings in seven of 17 starts.

The 33-year-old veteran is 9-1 with a 2.05 ERA over his last 14 starts. The last Texas pitcher to match that span was Kenny Rogers in 2005. Eovaldi leads MLB with 112 1/3 innings pitched, the most innings by a Rangers starter in his first 17 starts of a season since Mike Minor had 112 2/3 in 2019.

The All-Star Game is July 11 in Seattle.

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