16-11 - Duran dinger, Eovaldi gem sends Rangers to 2-0 win over Yanks

The Texas Rangers scored two runs while the New York Yankees did not score a run.

This game felt important. After the Jacob deGrom news that preceded the proceedings, there felt like the risk of the air swiftly vacating the balloon that Texas had cultivated with a nice start to the season.

Starter Nathan Eovaldi was having none of it, however, and Ezequiel Duran provided the only helium that the Rangers would need at the plate.

The Yankees are a little like the Rangers right now in that they are a bit beat up, with reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge the latest to hit the IL. But the Yankees are a good team expected to do good things.

Unlike say, the Cincinnati Reds, New York is a team that you expect to give the Rangers a nice measuring stick, so that the Rangers have rebounded a little by taking two in a row to secure no worse than a series split this weekend is a crumb of encouragement after a rough patch in both the standings and injury wire.

Player of the Game: Duran deserves credit for blasting the two-run home run that provided the game’s only scoring. It, of course, came against the Yankees, the team that put him in the trade that sent Joey Gallo to New York. In total, Duran collected two of the Rangers’ five hits, including the dinger.

But Eovaldi emphatically announced that hey, he’s in this rotation too. It wasn’t just deGrom that Texas brought in this winter. The righty tossed easily his best outing so far for Texas, and arguably the best from any starter so far, with a complete game shutout on three hits, zero walks, and eight Ks in 113 pitches.

In essence, Eovaldi gave us a deGrom-esque outing of dominance to soothe our weary psyche tonight.

Up Next: The Rangers will be seeking a series victory against the Yankees with LHP Martin Perez set to pitch for Texas in the finale against LHP Nestor Cortes for New York.

Sunday afternoon’s first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 1:35 pm CT and will be aired on BS Southwest.