ARLINGTON, Texas - Nathan Eovaldi did not start Wednesday night. He finished it.
Entered in the sixth with the Texas Rangers tied and the bullpen already in motion, Eovaldi worked four scoreless innings, allowed one hit, walked nobody and struck out one, per ESPN's box. The Associated Press credited him with retiring his last 11 batters and with the win (11-9) in his second appearance since a month on the injured list for elbow inflammation.
Texas beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3 at Globe Life Field and pulled even with Houston atop the American League West.
The outing was bulk relief, not a traditional save setup. MacKenzie Gore had lasted four innings - two hits, three runs, three walks, no strikeouts - and Jakob Junis had bridged the fifth before a balk helped Boston nudge ahead 3-2. Eovaldi took the ball and erased the noise.
One hit. Zero free passes. A game that had tilted on a dropped ball on the rubber ended under his control.
Offense finds him a lead
Brandon Nimmo's tiebreaking double in the seventh and Ezequiel Duran's two-run single gave Texas the cushion Eovaldi needed, the AP reported. Erik Miller (4-1) absorbed the loss after Texas scored three times in that frame. From there, Eovaldi simply kept throwing strikes.
CBS Sports' box matches the ESPN pitching line - four innings, one hit, no runs, no walks, one strikeout on 46 pitches (30 strikes).
Willson Contreras had given Boston a 2-0 first-inning lead with his 27th home run. Justin Foscue and Jake Burger answered early with doubles, and Foscue's RBI single tied it in the fourth. Wyatt Langford's RBI single in the fifth kept Texas within a run before the balk and before the seventh-inning surge that changed the night.
Back from the IL, into September
Eovaldi's return timeline matters in a division race this tight. The AP noted this was only his second game since the elbow IL stint. Four scoreless innings of relief with an 11-batter finish is the kind of usage that stretches a staff in September without asking him for 90 pitches as a starter.
