Thoughts on a 6-1 Rangers win – Lone Star Ball
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Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images
Rangers 6, Red Sox 1
A win and some runs.
Nathan Eovaldi did his thing with aplomb, dealing with a delayed start and rain once the game did start with minimal issues. A Quality Start, six innings, one run, seven Ks, just one walk.
Eovaldi’s walk was to Rafael Devers, which is interesting, because Eovaldi entered the game with the lowest BB/9 rate in MLB, and Devers entered the game with the most walks in the American League. It was an immovable object versus an irresistible force situation.
The walk was on a 3-2 pitch, and the 3-2 pitch was a very well located fastball that, well, probably could have been called a strike — similar pitches had been in the game — at the bottom of the zone and just a hair inside. If you are going to throw a ball four, that’s at least an acceptable pitch to have as ball four.
Eovaldi got an impressive 18 whiffs on the day, and spread them out nicely — three on the curve, four on the cutter, five on the fastball and six on the splitter.
By the time the bullpen entered the game, Texas had a comfortable lead, and the pen allowed us just to relax and not worry and basically not notice them, which is an ideal outcome.
Texas got on the board in the first, when, with runners on first and third and two outs, Lucas Giolito threw a pitch that got away from Boston catcher Carlos Narvaez. Joc Pederson was wandering a bit away at first, which got Narvaez’s attention, meaning he wasn’t as cognizant as he should have been of Wyatt Langford getting a good read and breaking for home, making it in easily to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Pederson ended up being hung up between bases on the play for the third out, but hey, trade an out for a run.
The fourth inning was where Texas blew it open, with the type of stringing together of hits that we haven’t seen enough of this year. A Corey Seager ground rule double was followed by a Joc Pederson ground rule double, bringing the first run home. Five singles, with a sac fly and a non-sac fly mixed in, brought home four more runs, giving Texas a 6-0 lead and resulting in many cuts to new hitting coach Bret Boone in the dugout.
The Rangers picked up 16 hits in all, an encouraging sign for an offense that, you may have heard, has been bad this season. Texas wasn’t mashing — the two ground rule doubles in the fourth were the only two extra base hits Texas picked up, and there were a number of balls that made it past gloves that, it feels like, would have been somehow able to be fielded in previous games, just because that’s the way things had been going. But they scored a nice amount of runs and logged a bunch of hits and we can feel good about that.
Josh Smith, on the heels of a four hit night last time out, picked up three hits as well as a walk. So did Adolis Garcia, and the walk may be the most significant of those, given it is just his second walk in his last nineteen games.
Joc Pederson, Marcus Semien and Evan Carter each had a pair of hits, encouraging for each of them for different reasons. And Jonah Heim continued his solid 2025 campaign with a pair of hits.
In fact, the only Ranger starter who did not get a hit was Josh Jung, who Bruce Bochy, in his wisdom, hit ninth in the order.
Nathan Eovaldi touched 97.6 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.1 mph. Shawn Armstrong hit 94.0 mph with his sinker. Robert Garcia maxed out at 95.1 mph. Chris Martin reached 95.8 with his fastball.
Joc Pederson had a 109.8 mph double and a 106.8 mph single. Wyatt Langford had a 108.8 mph single. Josh Jung had a 107.7 mph line out. Jonah Heim had a 105.2 mph single. Adolis Garcia had a 103.2 mph single. Marcus Semien had a 100.2 mph single.
Can the Rangers turn this into an actual, you know, streak? We shall see…
