There isn’t a pitcher in Major League Baseball who is more locked in than Nathan Eovaldi.
Eovaldi, who spent the majority of the last five seasons as a member of the Boston Red Sox before signing with the Texas Rangers this offseason, has been the best pitcher in baseball over the last couple of weeks. His last three starts have all gone at least eight innings and led to wins for the AL West-leading Rangers, resulting in a historic stretch for the 33-year-old.
In completing his third-consecutive victory Thursday against the lowly Oakland Athletics, Eovaldi became just the sixth MLB pitcher in the modern era to throw 25-plus scoreless innings with 25-plus strikeouts and three or fewer walks over a three-start span, per OptaSTATS.
That list includes Walter Johnson (1913), Sandy Koufax (1963), Bob Gibson (1968), Orel Hershiser (1984), Clayton Kershaw (2015) and Eovaldi. Johnson, Koufax and Gibson are all in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with Kershaw a near lock to be enshrined following his career.
Eovaldi hasn’t just been great for a stretch, however, as he has a 5-2 record with a 2.70 ERA and 56 strikeouts across 53 1/3 innings pitched.
It looks like the 33-year-old was money well spent for the Rangers.
