Two years later, Nathan Eovaldi's dominance against Yankees sparks hope in clubhouse

Exactly two years after his first career complete game shutout against the Yankees, the Texas Rangers ace has repeated history when the team needed it most.

Nathan Eovaldi, who has been struggling this season, had everything working in his seven shutdown innings during Wednesday's 3-0 win over the Yankees. Entering with the team in the middle of a three-game losing streak, Texas needed a boost and this might be it.

Big Game Nate, Rangers hope this dominance is spark team needs

It's funny how baseball works sometimes. On April 29, 2023, Eovaldi took the hill a day after the Rangers lost Jacob deGrom for the year as he eventually had to undergo Tommy John Surgery.

With the clubhouse reeling from the deGrom news, Eovaldi knew this was a time to step up and threw nine shutout innings, striking out eight Yankees and allowing just three hits. Texas won that game 2-0 and it showed the league that there's still an ace in the Rangers' rotation.

His seven inning performance on Wednesday didn't have as high of stakes, as deGrom or another pitcher didn't just receive season-ending news but the team itself was on a three-game set and Eovaldi searching desperately for a bounce back outing.

Losers of seven of their last 10 games entering Wednesday's series finale, the Rangers are among the bottom 10 offenses in baseball and average less than three runs per game at Globe Life Field. Despite only scoring three runs, it was a win to get them out of the funk they can carry on the road, where their five runs per game is the sixth-best in MLB.

The Rangers' pitching has been good this season and it's the offense that has struggled to get it together. Outside of Josh Jung and Brandon Nimmo, the team's hitting has been pretty non-existent since the opening six-game road trip to kick off the year.

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