What is the story about?
Rangers
5, Blue Jays 4
- Its a two game winning streak, y’all.
- And a win that is thanks in large part to our man Nathan Eovaldi.
- In the first game against Toronto, MacKenzie Gore allowed four hits and a walk in seven innings, but clustered most of them together in one inning, resulting in three runs scoring.
- Nathan Eovaldi was similar to Gore in terms of allowing baserunners — five hits and a walk — but wily veteran that he is, he made sure they were more scattered.
- Through five innings Eovaldi had allowed just a walk and a single. He allowed a pair of hits in the six and two more in the seventh, but left them all stranded, ultimately leaving the game with no Blue Jays runs on the board.
- The Jays did their damage off the pen in the eighth, with Robby Ahlstrom and Jakob Junis each getting dinged with two runs apiece in the inning before Junis finally struck out pinch hitter Alejandro Kirk with the tying run on first.
- And Jacob Latz decided to walk the leadoff hitter in the ninth just to alarm us a little before retiring the next three batters on foul pop outs.
- Eovaldi’s most effective pitch for once wasn’t his splitter. Instead it was the curveball that was keeping the Jays off-balance, generating 8 of the 14 swings and misses he got on the day.
- Eovaldi threw his cutter and curveball a combined 49 times and didn’t allow either a hit or a hard hit ball off of either of them. Eovaldi only allowed three hard hit balls all game, per Statcast, with two coming off of his fastball and one on his sinker.
- That’s pretty good, I think.
- Eovaldi logged nine strikeouts against the Jays, which moved him past Kerry Wood, Yovani Gallardo, Woodie Fryman and Todd Stottlemyre for 204th on the all time strikeout list, with 1588. If he can strike out seven his next time out he’ll move into the top 200.
- Looking at the guys ahead of him on the all time list, guys he could pass this year if he stays healthy and effective, you see an odd combination of names. The next three are Ron Darling, he of the awful Lee Mazzili trade, Steve Trachsel, and Hall of Famer Rube Marquard. Guys Eovaldi could be passing later in the year include Hall of Famer Vic Willis, who is sandwiched between J.A> Happ and Rick Wise. Freddy Garcia, Jack Powell, Steve Rogers and Jered Weaver are all tied at #186, with 1621 Ks.
- Much like the series opener, the Rangers jumped on top early, then rode that out despite having to sweat a little late.
- The Rangers jumped on Patrick Corbin for three runs in the first inning, then two more in the third.
- I’m like, oh, yeah, Patrick Corbin was in the Rangers’ rotation most of last year. It feels kind of embarrassing.
- Justin Foscue, looking to securely lock down his role as short-side platoon DH, went 2 for 4, driving in a run in the first with an RBI single, and then both the third inning runs with a two run homer.
- Foscue is currently slashing .382/.462/.735 in 39 plate appearances against lefties, and I think that will play.
- For the season he’s slashing .268/.330/.500 in 91 plate appearances. I’m not going to provide his splits against righties because I don’t want to harsh my mellow.
- Wyatt Langford went 3 for 5 with a double, continuing to silence the critics. He also stole a base, though he was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double as well.
- Langford is slashing .278/.324/.500 on the season. His 1.7 bWAR is the second-highest on the team, despite playing in just 40 games so far this year, and he has a 138 OPS+. He has a 1.5 fWAR and 128 wRC+, if you prefer Fangraphs to B-R.
- Coming into this game, the Rangers were in a four-way tie for WC3 with the Astros, A’s and Jays. The Jays lost to the Rangers, of course, and the Astros lost, but the A’s won, so the Rangers are now in a tie for WC3 with the A’s, one game up on the Astros and Jays, a game and a half up on the Twins and the Orioles, a game and a half back of Seattle in the A.L. West, and two games back of Cleveland for WC2.
- Nathan Eovaldi reached 96.3 mph on his fastball, averaging 95.6 mph. Robby Ahlstrom topped out at 96.4 mph with his fastball. Jakob Junis’s sinker reached 94.6 mph. Jacob Latz touched 95.9 mph with his fastball.
- Alejandro Osuna had a 105.6 mph groundout. Justin Foscue had a 104.8 mph homer and a 101.6 mph groundout. Wyatt Langford had a 104.2 mph double and a 103.0 mph single. Nicky Lopez had a 103.3 mph single. Ezequiel Duran had a 101.2 mph groundout.
- Five down, five to go.
