Eovaldi finally gets his Series start
ARLINGTON, Texas — It took five years, but Nate Eovaldi is finally going to get that World Series start he missed.
Eovaldi was scheduled to pitch Game 4 of the 2018 Series for the Red Sox at Dodger Stadium before Game 3 went to extra innings and he was needed in relief.
That proved to be seven innings and 97 pitches, an incredible effort turned sour when Max Muncy homered leading off the bottom of the 18th inning. The Red Sox came back to win the Series, and Eovaldi was one of the heroes for having saved the bullpen.
“I kind of had my moment there,” he said.
Now a member of the Texas Rangers, Eovaldi will finally check that box when he starts Game 1 against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
“Very excited for this opportunity to be able to start a game,” he said Thursday before the Rangers worked out at Globe Life Field. “Obviously, I’m very grateful for the past experiences. Just being able to participate and get into the World Series was big.
“But coming in, having Game 1, trying to set a tone for the team, there’s a lot of pressure with that, but also a lot of excitement.”
Eovaldi is 4-0 with a 2.42 earned run average in four postseason starts this season. He pitched into the seventh inning and allowed two runs in Game 6 of the ALCS in Houston on Sunday to keep the Rangers alive.
Now he could make two World Series starts and perhaps another relief appearance as Texas seeks the first championship in franchise history.
“That would mean the world,” said Eovaldi, who’s in his first season with the Rangers after playing five seasons for the Sox. “To be able to say that you were part of the first one, you kind of set the foundation for the years to come and you don’t really know what will happen after that.”
Martín Pérez, a teammate in Boston and again with Texas, was asked what has made Eovaldi so dominant this month. Has it been his playoff experience, or his command of five pitches? Maybe it’s simply being healthy, an issue that has been an obstacle all his career.
“None of that,” Pérez said. “For me, it’s just his competitiveness. He’s not over-thinking the situation. He’s going out there and taking it one hitter at a time and just being a competitor.
“He’s a nice guy. But when he pitches, that competitor comes out. Especially in October.”
Texas built a team for this moment, pushing its payroll to $251 million by signing Eovaldi, righthander Jacob deGrom, shortstop Corey Seager, and second baseman Marcus Semien the last two seasons and trading for lefthander Jordan Montgomery and righthander Max Scherzer at the trade deadline this season.
The Rangers also convinced three-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy to come out of retirement to manage them. They quickly rebuilt a team that lost 102 games in 2021.
deGrom lasted six starts before needing season-ending elbow surgery. But Texas won 90 games and is 9-3 in the postseason.
“We thought we were good,” Bochy said. “We thought we belonged and we thought we could win and that’s how we looked at it.”
Arizona lost 110 games in 2021. They rebuilt by incorporating talented players from their farm system, trading for 23-year-old catcher Gabriel Moreno before the season, and pulling together enough bullpen arms to give manager Torey Lovullo an advantage in the late innings.
Paul Sewald, obtained from Seattle at the deadline, has appeared in eight playoff games, working eight shutout innings and allowing only three hits while striking out 11 with one walk.
The Diamondbacks were 59-60 on Aug. 14 and finished 84-78, 16 games behind the Dodgers.
But they swept the Brewers on the road in the Wild Card series, stunned the Dodgers in a threegame Division Series sweep, and won the final two games of the NLCS in Philadelphia to upset the Phillies.
“No one expected us to be here. And it was like, we’re here, we might as well see what happens,” said Zac Gallen, who will oppose Eovaldi in Game 1.
The winner of the Series will be the ninth different champion in the last 10 years.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was the bench coach of the 2013 Red Sox, an unlikely championship team. He’s drawing on the experiences of that season.
“It just seems like one continuous day for me since we arrived in Milwaukee [on Oct. 3],” Lovullo said. “It’s just this foggy approach to every single day that we have a job to do and it’s like just go get it done.
“You go to order something at Chipotle, it’s meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, it’s the same thing, the same lineup, every single day for me.”
Sounds like an endorsement deal waiting to happen.