Thoughts on a 2-0 Rangers win

Rangers 2, Yankees 0

• Well, one way to deal with a shaky bullpen is just never go to the bullpen.
• Nathan Eovaldi used 113 pitches to throw a complete game shutout against the hated New York Yankees. It was the first CGSO for a Ranger pitcher since Martin Perez on May 20, 2022.
• Coming on the heels of Jacob deGrom landing on the injured list after leaving last night’s game early…I would say this was a shot in the arm, but that would seem to understate things. Having just seen their ace go on the shelf, having been swept earlier in the week by the hapless Cincinnati Reds, this was a team that was staring at adversity, had the fans sighing resignedly and assuming that after a nice few weeks reality would now be crashing in.
• And Eovaldi went nine, struck out eight, allowed three hits and didn’t walk anyone. Yeah, it’s April, but he came up huge.
• I find myself wondering if Bruce Bochy left Eovaldi out there to finish it off, in part, because of the deGrom injury, as a way of saying, we lost deGrom but we have a rotation full of guys who can step up and shut the other team down.
• Ezequiel Duran, getting more playing time of late, crushed an upper deck two run homer that was all the offense the team ended up needing.
• The first six spots in the Ranger lineup were 0 for 18. The bottom three were 5 for 9.
• Nathan Eovaldi maxed out at 98.9 mph. His final fastball of the game was 98.4 mph, and his penultimate fastball was 98.8 mph.
• Ezequiel Duran’s home run was 111.7 mph off the bat. He also had a 105.3 mph single. Bubba Thompson had a 104.3 mph single. Marcus Semien had a 103.2 mph fly out.
• Texas heads into the series finale 2 games up on the Astros. That’s fun.