ARLINGTON, Texas — Nathan Eovaldi allowed 3 runs in the sixth inning Tuesday night and took the loss as the New York Mets beat the Texas Rangers 6-3 at Globe Life Field. Eovaldi is now 11-10.
He entered with a 3-2 lead. Brett Baty led off with a double, and Francisco Alvarez later doubled to center for two runs and a 4-3 Mets lead. Alvarez scored on a sacrifice fly by Luis Torrens that first baseman Jake Burger caught in foul territory.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker kept his evaluation to Tuesday’s outing rather than the full run of relief appearances. The count on Baty was 0-2.
“Today, leadoff hitter, 0-2 count, just kind of made too good of a fastball kind of in the middle of the zone to Baty, ended up getting a leadoff double,” Schumaker said. “And then there’s just a couple splits that just didn’t have the depth to it, and I think that was the issue tonight as far as there’s some good ones, and then the ones that got hit just didn’t have the bite to it to Alvarez, especially kind of in the middle of the plate, and he doubled.”
“So I just thought there’s just a couple pitches that he’s used to executing that got too much of the plate tonight,” Schumaker continued.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Four Relief Outings Since Returning From The Injured List
Texas placed Eovaldi on the 15-day injured list Aug. 10, retroactive to Aug. 9, with right posterior elbow inflammation. His last start came Aug. 7 against the Baltimore Orioles. The Rangers skipped a minor league rehab assignment and activated him Sept. 12 in Phoenix.
That night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Eovaldi threw 2 2/3 innings and allowed 4 hits and 1 earned run with 2 strikeouts. It was his first relief appearance since 2019. On Sept. 16 against the Boston Red Sox, he threw 4 scoreless innings on 46 pitches and allowed 1 hit with no walks and 1 strikeout in a 7-3 win.
Three days later, Eovaldi pitched the sixth inning on two days of rest against the heart of the Toronto Blue Jays order with a lead. Before the injury, he went 10-9 with a 4.21 ERA and 137 strikeouts over 132 2/3 innings in 22 starts.
Before Tuesday’s game, Schumaker said on Rangers Sports Network that Eovaldi would pitch in winning games this week. Texas scored all 3 of its runs Tuesday before the sixth.
“I think they have stepped up in the last couple series,” Schumaker explained of the offense. “I mean, the Arizona series they stepped up. Against Boston they stepped up. Last series they stepped up. And, again, we had chances to put up crooked numbers with different guys up.”
“And I really do think they put good swings at times to put the crooked number up,” Schumaker continued. “We just got the sac fly instead. And again, I’ll take the run scored. Going to Evo with the lead, I’ll take that. We just couldn’t hold it.”
Rangers Rotation Remains Day To Day
Texas had not named starters for Wednesday or Thursday as of Tuesday. Cal Quantrill moved to the 60-day injured list Tuesday with a right lat strain. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery recorded 11 outs in relief after Quantrill left his Sept. 19 start.
President of baseball operations Chris Young said Monday that Jacob deGrom will pitch one of the final games. The Rangers (78-79) are tied with the Houston Astros atop the American League West, and Houston owns the tiebreaker.
The Rangers and Mets play again Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field. Rookie right-hander Nolan McLean (11-10, 3.18 ERA) is scheduled to start for New York.
