How Rangers SP Nathan Eovaldi Stymied the Astros in the 2023 ALCS

The Texas Rangers are six games away from their first World Series title, thanks to two pivotal wins in Houston that put the team up 2-0 in the 2023 ALCS. While timely hitting has played a role, the starters have been at the forefront of the Rangers’ success. Rangers SP Nathan Eovaldi is part of the reason why the Rangers are at this point and here’s a closer look at his dominant Game 2 start.

A Look at Eovaldi’s Game 2 in the 2023 ALCS

One day after Jordan Montgomery shut down the Houston Astros for six innings, Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi did the same.

The two starters have different weapons — Montgomery makes strong use of a two-seamer, whereas Eovaldi relies on the four-seamer — but there were some similarities between what Montgomery and Eovaldi did in their starts.

Namely, how the two leveraged their curveballs to get hitters to chase. A case in point was in Game 1 during the third inning when Montgomery worked Yordan Alvarez in constantly before he changed the eye angle and popped in a curveball that fooled the prolific slugger during Alvarez’s second at-bat.

Eovaldi, meanwhile, threw his curve not just for strikes but also used it to get hitters to chase. The righty got three whiffs off the curve, all of which were in two-strike accounts, against Yainer Diaz, Kyle Tucker, and Jose Abreu.

But Eovaldi wasn’t predictable in any way shape or form and that change-of-pace curve wasn’t the only weapon at his disposal. Eovaldi’s splitter, his go-to offspeed weapon, netted him eight swing-and-misses.

The 33-year-old’s splitter execution is nearly perfect from a pitching point of view: it differs in speed from the fastball by about 7-8 MPH, moves away from left-handers, is commanded well, and makes use of the tunnel and plays it well off the fastball.

Nathan Eovaldi pitch map Game 1 2023 ALCS — One that Eovaldi does that can make his splitter pop is throw the fastball both up and down. It adds some unpredictability but also mirrors the splitter and makes the latter a more dangerous weapon.

Looking Ahead in the ALCS

We knew heading into the ALCS that Eovaldi possesses the stuff and that “it” factor MLB teams laud. The veteran never looked rattled, especially when the Astros had the bases full with no one out in the fifth.

The signing of Eovaldi looked like a steal for much of the year, but the loss of Jacob deGrom has made the righty even more valuable to a Rangers team that’s now two games away from a World Series birth.

Montgomery and Eovaldi did their job. Now, it’s time to see if Max Scherzer, who missed all of the Wild Card and ALDS rounds, can vanquish the Astros in Game 3.

Scherzer did not pitch well in his last postseason outing when he gave up four home runs and seven earned runs over 4.2 IP against the Padres in the 2022 NL Wild Card round.