Thoughts on a 6-1 Rangers win

Rangers 6, Pirates 1

• Nathan Eovaldi is the cure for what ails you.
• I am wholly baffled by what Nathan Eovaldi is doing right now. I was unenthusiastic about the signing. He’s a guy whose results rarely seemed to match his stuff, and he had an injury history, and at 33 I didn’t see him as someone likely to start improving his results and staying healthy.
• And he was slowed in spring training, wasn’t at full speed at the start of the year…if you recall, part of the argument for keeping both Dane Dunning and Cole Ragans as long relievers was that Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom were going to be limited to start the year.
• So here we are, with Eovaldi having thrown his second complete game in his last five starts. 41.2 IP over that stretch, four runs allowed. Six hits allowed today, one walk, five Ks.
• And of course, by going all nine innings, he allows us to avoid any toxic bullpen talk, at least for one night.
• I will also say, the praise that you hear Eovaldi get as a teammate is rather remarkable. The broadcast regularly talks about him helping and supporting his fellow pitchers. The beats reference the same thing. You hear teammates talk about him in glowing terms — Josh Jung, talking to Lesley McCaslin in the postgame interview on the broadcast after the game, made a reference to what a “great person” Eovaldi is.
• Anyway, Eovaldi now has a 2.60 ERA on the year, so safe to say he is exceeding expectations.
• Josh Jung has three home runs in his last three games after homering on Tuesday. He also had a two RBI single off of Rich Hill.
• When Hill was drafted out of high school (and didn’t sign) in 1999, Josh Jung was 16 months old.
• Two Rangers runs scoring on balks is weird and makes the box score look weird.
• Also weird…there were two replay reviews, one due to a Pittsburgh challenge, one due to a crew chief review. Both involved out calls on Ji Hwan Bae trying to get back to his base (the first on a pickoff at first, the second on Adolis Garcia throwing behind him when he rounded too far at second). Both calls stood.
• The Garcia throw behind Bae was pretty funny. Well, for a moment it was scary, because Marcus Semien looked like he might have hurt his shoulder. But apparently he didn’t, so it is funny.
• Nathan Eovaldi maxed out at 97.8 mph, which he did three times — once in the first, once in the third, and once in the seventh. He averaged 96.5 mph on his fastball.
• Josh Jung’s home run was 109.6 mph off the bat, and he also had a 102.8 mph single. Adolis Garcia had a 108.3 mph fly out and a pair of doubles at 107.5 mph and 106.8 mph.
• Get ready for brunch with the Rangers Wednesday morning as Texas tries to take the series. Think positive thoughts. Keep your chakras aligned.