ARLINGTON — It was only fair.
Nathan Eovaldi has saved the Rangers time and time and time again in this uneven season of offensive unpredictability. The least they could do for him was bail him out for a change. The net deficit will still be insurmountable, but for a team trying to cling to playoff hopes through a stormy start to August, it will do just fine: Rangers 7, Arizona 6 in 10 innings.
“We won and that’s all that matters,” Eovaldi said after allowing five runs, including three homers in five innings of work Monday because of an unexpectedly erratic splitter and some fastball location issues.
“I’ll work on the side to go and figure out everything that I need to work on. But regardless of how well I do out there, it’s about us, about the team winning games, especially with where we are at this point of the season. That’s the only thing that matters.”
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This, of course, may be put to the test. It’s possible Eovaldi sacrificed his burgeoning Cy Young candidacy, built mostly on a historic ERA pace. In return, the Rangers pulled off their biggest comeback win of the season, erasing a five-run deficit heading to the bottom of the sixth.
Along the way, Wyatt Langford broke out of a monthlong power drought to get the Rangers back in the game. Bruce Bochy, sensing the importance or desperation of the moment, turned to his high-leverage relievers despite trailing; they responded by retiring 12 of the last 13 Diamondbacks. Rowdy Tellez imitated Corey Seager’s World Series trick with a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth. And Jake Burger, who has recently been reduced to platoon status, delivered a game-winning walkoff single off the left field wall, doing what he hasn’t done at all this year, getting out ahead of a pitch and pulling it in the air.
Related:Watch: Jake Burger walks it off as Rangers beat Diamondbacks in extra innings
It all added up a win that stopped the Rangers’ four-game losing streak and kept them above .500. Even gained them a little ground on Cleveland, the team directly ahead of them in the wild card standings. The Guardians were off, but a half-game is still a half game.
Most importantly, it perhaps pumped some plasma back into a team that looked as if it was teetering in the last week. Even Bochy acknowledged the importance/desperation of the moment, both with actions and words. The actions: After the Rangers got within a run on Langford’s three-run homer, his first in exactly one month, he turned to a procession of guys who typically pitch only with a lead: Danny Coulombe, Shawn Armstrong, Hoby Milner and Phil Maton.
The words: “I think it says one thing: That we need to win a ballgame. Normally, I probably wouldn’t do that but this is a game I thought would be really, really big for the club to win. They were fresh and they were good to go and did a really nice job. It was a game that I just felt like once we got so close and with how hard they fought, we needed to do what we can to keep it there. And give us a chance to win.”
All things considered, it still seemed a bit desperate. The Rangers have not been a team prone to comebacks this season. Until Monday, the biggest deficit they’d overcome to win a game was two runs. They’d done that twice.
Eovaldi’s struggles with his splitter led to three homers and two hit batsmen in five innings. It was the first time in his career, he allowed multiple homers and hit batters in the same start. Entering the game, Eovaldi had allowed only five homers in 111 innings this season, a big reason why his ERA sat at 1.38. When it was all done, it rose to 1.71 for 116 innings. He still has the lowest ERA in the AL among pitchers with at least 100 innings, but his edge over Boston’s Garrett Crochet shrunk. Also: He still falls short of qualifying for the official league leaders.
Consider that his ERA through 19 starts was the fifth lowest in the 105 years of the “Live Ball Era.” Historic. After 20 starts, 1.71 is merely impressive. There have been 27 other such occurrences.
But the night wasn’t about what might have been lost individually. Or what might be gained long term for an offense that has defied explanation all year long. Could it give the Rangers a boost of energy? Sure. Then again, it’s a question that’s been asked over and over after a win ended a stretch of inconsistency.
No, right now, it’s not about considering the future. It’s about considering the present. The Rangers needed to win a game Monday. They’ll need to win just as badly on Tuesday. And that is likely to be the case every night the rest of the way. What mattered was that they played a game on Monday and won.
“We all needed this win as a group,” Tellez said, emphasizing “all.” “Sometimes it happens as a group. Sometimes it’s one guy that does it.”
For most of the season, when Eovaldi has started, it’s fallen on one guy: him. On Monday, the group picked him up.
Watch: Jake Burger walks it off as Rangers beat Diamondbacks in extra innings‘It shouldn’t happen’: How the Rangers’ offense tends to get worse as the game goes along
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