A Good Rule To Follow For October Baseball - Give Nathan Eovaldi The Ball And Get Out Of The Way
Richard Rodriguez. Getty Images.With Madison Bumgarner out of the picture, there might not be a better big game pitcher than Nathan Eovaldi right now. Give that guy the ball and get out of the way. Doesn't matter what his September looked like. Who cares what the physical questions you have about him. You trust Nasty Nate in October and good things happen.
Did it help that the Rangers put up a six spot in the first two frames last night? Sure, but Nate wasn't letting the O's back in the game. He was locked in from the jump, as he seemingly always is, and picked apart the O's lineup.
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He's always done this. That 2018 Red Sox title team was practically carried by the right arm of that man. I was in the building for that six inning appearance in relief in Game 3 of the World Series. Motherfucker just kept going out there, doing whatever he could to give them a fighting chance. As gutsy as it gets. It's crazy to me still that the Sox barely went into negotiations with him once he became a free agent, but then again Chaim was bad at his job and Henry stopped caring about being a serious owner. Eovaldi is a dawg and you can never have enough of those kind of guys.
That's an aspect of baseball that the nerd Klemmer doesn't understand. He doesn't believe that some pitchers are built for October and some aren't. He can't comprehend the reasoning for why Kershaw isn't the same as he is in the regular season. The same goes for the way Eovaldi turns into this fire-breathing dragon in the postseason. If he's facing your lineup in a big postseason game you know you're in for hell. His teams are 10-3 when he pitches in a playoff game. He's given up four runs or more one time in those appearances. He's as money as it gets when it matters most.
Yeah his September sucked. He was basically doing his minor league rehab in the majors because Texas was starving for healthy arms. The results were shit, but it was all in preparation for getting right for October. Just get him here and enjoy the show.
Guy is awesome. Astros-Rangers would be an excellent ALCS, especially if Scherzer returns.