What is the story about?
Rangers
8, Astros 0
- Okay, I guess, for one day, we can calm down a little about the offense.
- And about Nathan Eovaldi’s achy side.
- Eovaldi had it going on today. Seven innings, 8 Ks, 64 strikes on 94 pitches. Five hits, a pair of walks, and a hit batter.
- Honestly, it felt like he was pitching even better than those numbers indicate.
- Eovaldi went heavy with this splitter and had it working, throwing it 44 times and generating 13 whiffs out of 27 swings on it.
- Eovaldi threw his curveball 18 times and only once was it put into play. That one was kind of a big deal, though, as Yordan Alvarez skied a 1-2 curve to start the bottom of the fourth way, way up in the air, on an arc that looked like it would land in the right field seats.
- Brandon Nimmo wasn’t having any of that, though:
- Nimmo made a spectacular leaping catch to steal a home run from Alvarez. In fairness to Eovaldi, though, that’s a warning track fly ball in most parks. While the Crawford Boxes get all the attention, the right field seats at the onetime Enron Field are closer in than most. Statcast has that as a homer in just two parks — Philly and, of course, Yankee Stadium.
- Eovaldi had little in the way of issues the rest of the way.
- Three weeks ago, Eovaldi’s ERA was 5.79 on the season. Since then, he has allowed one run in 22 innings, has struck out 23, and has walked just three, lowering his ERA to 3.62.
- Gavin Collyer came in to handle the final two innings. The last time Collyer was asked to close out a game with a big lead, he ended up walking three batters, giving up a hit, and being pulled without retiring a batter.
- This time went much better, Six up and six down for Collyer, with a pair of Ks.
- It looked quite unlikely that a Ranger pitcher would be doing positive mop-up duty in the early part of the game, though. Through four innings, the Rangers were once again being no-hit, with a Joc Pederson walk giving the Rangers their only baserunner.
- Alejandro Osuna beat out an infield single to break up the no-hitter with one out in the fifth. And he did it on a ball he had no business swinging at, a changeup he was way out in front of and that was barely above the ground when he made contact with it. Osuna chopped it past the pitcher’s mound, just hard enough to get past Astros pitcher Peter Lambert, just soft enough that Nick Allen wasn’t able to get the ball to first in time.
- We had barely finished celebrating the exciting news that the Rangers wouldn’t be no hit when Jake Burger took a fastball the other way, tucking it into the seats in the right field corner for a homer, making it 2-0.
- It was the second time in four days Burger gave the Rangers a lead with a home run right down the line in right field.
- That doesn’t have any particular meaning, but I figured I’d point it out.
- The flood gates ended up opening in the seventh, with Jake Burger once again doing damage. A Joc Pederson walk, an Ezequiel Duran double, and an Osuna HBP loaded the bases and led to the Astros making a pitching change. Burger let a pair of cutters go by for balls, watched a sinker and a cutter get called for strikes, then crushed a sweeper that stayed out over the plate right over third baseman Braden Shewmake’s head for a two run double.
- I thought Shewmake was going to catch it, because that’s how things have been going. It was probably going too fast for him to see it, though.
- Kyle Higashioka singled home Osuna and Burger, Nimmo doubled home Higashioka, and it was 7-0 and we were feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
- Higashioka finished things off with a 9th inning homer, his second of the season, giving the Rangers a snowman on the scoreboard.
- In the first game of the series, the Rangers barely got anyone on base. In the second game of the series, the Rangers had a ton of traffic, but only scored one run and stranded, I don’t know, I think 13 runners? Something like that?
- Sunday, they got things figured out. They did the very fun thing where they scored more runs (8) than they had hits (7). Five of the seven hits were of the extra base variety. Of their 10 baserunners, only two were left on.
- Efficient, it was.
- The 8 run margin of victory is the largest for the Rangers since they beat the Angels 20-3 on August 27, 2025.
- In addition, the A’s have lost, and so the Rangers are back to being just a game out of first place.
- Let’s be happy, everyone!
- Nathan Eovaldi’s fastball topped out at 95.7 mph, averaging 94.9 mph. Gavin Collyer reached 97.5 mph with his fastball.
- Jake Burger had a 109.6 mph double and a 102.4 mph home run. Brandon Nimmo had a 101.6 mph fly out. Alejandro Osuna had a 100.7 mph ground out. Evan Carter had a 100.2 mph ground out.
- Now to Colorado.
