Another Ace Effort By Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers Top Pirates

Texas Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi threw his second complete game in Tuesday night's win at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Nathan Eovaldi has staked his claim to being the current ace of the Texas Rangers staff after another gem Tuesday night.

Whether he stays the ace remains to be seen. Or maybe the Rangers have two

But that’s an issue – and a good one to have – for another day.

As for now, Eovaldi is delivering and the Rangers keep winning. The second complete game of the season from the right-hander highlighted a 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.

The American League West-leading Rangers improved to 30-18 – tied for the franchise’s third-best record ever after 48 games. And Eovaldi has been a big reason for that, especially with appointed ace Jacob deGrom on the injured list.

Eovaldi (6-2) has thrown at least eight innings in four of his last five starts, with a 0.86 ERA in that stretch. The Rangers have won four of those games.

“He’s just in such a good groove,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s fun to see really good pitchers that get locked in.”

The Rangers quickly staked Eovaldi to a 2-0 lead on a few odd plays. Marcus Semien led of the game with a liner to center that was misplayed into a triple. He scored on Corey Seager’s infield hit.

Seager would eventually move to third after tagging on an Adolis García fly caught in foul territory down the right-field line. Seager scored on a balk from Rich Hill with two outs.

Turns out that was all the support Eovaldi needed. Josh Jung aided the effort with a two-run single in the sixth and his 11th home run in the eighth.

Eovaldi didn’t find much trouble, allowing only six hits and striking out five, but he did make pitches when they needed to be made.

“The times I did fall behind, I was able to rely on the cutter and get outs,” he said. “We knew coming in that they were going to be really selective when it was 0-2, that they weren’t going to chase too much. That’s one of the nice things about having the cutter, is I’m able to stick that in there with the splitter and get some early outs.”

Texas goes for the series win Wednesday morning with Martín Pérez (5-1, 4.01) on the mound. Johan Oviedo (3-3, 4.69) starts for the Pirates, with first pitch is set for 11:35 a.m. CT.

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