ARLINGTON — The largest upset might’ve been the fact that Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers was nowhere near the scene of the crime. The second-largest is the fact that the anchor of the Rangers rotation remains uncharacteristically unmoored.
Rangers right-handed pitcher Nathan Eovaldi allowed six runs on four home runs in a 8-1 loss vs. the Athletics at Globe Life Field Friday night. He’s allowed an American League-high nine home runs this season, one fewer than he allowed all of last season, and has given up five or more runs in half of his six starts to begin the year. His 5.97 ERA is the fourth-highest in baseball and the fourth-highest he’s ever posted in any six-game span with the Rangers.
Eovaldi, who pitched seven shutout innings against the Athletics last week in West Sacramento, allowed home runs on three of his first seven pitches Friday night. Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz pulled a first-pitch four-seam fastball into the right field seats to lead off the game. Designated hitter Carlos Cortes hit a middle-middle splitter for a home run five pitches after that, and in the next at-bat, left fielder Tyler Soderstrom hit a first-pitch four-seam fastball over the plate to straightaway center field for another one.
“Lately I’ve just been middle-middle, middle-away, middle-in,” Eovaldi said. “That’s where a lot of the damage has been done.”
He logged scoreless frames in the second, third and fourth when he was able to keep his pitches down in the strike zone. In the fifth, after center fielder Zak Gelof walked and Kurtz singled, Cortes pulled what Eovaldi thought was a well-executed cutter into right field for a three-run home run that cracked the game open. Right-handed pitcher Cal Quantrill, who relieved Eovaldi in the seventh inning, allowed a two-run home run to Gelof in the top of the ninth to widen the margin even further.
The 37-year-old is traditionally a master of disguise with a six-pitch arsenal that breeds unpredictability, but through a month of games, one of his primary pitches is off and has partially destabilized the collective repertoire. Opponents had hit .611 against his four-seam fastball through his first five starts, and Friday night, after Eovaldi left it up in the zone early and the Athletics swatted it for a pair of home runs in the first inning, he threw it a season-low nine times.
“The majority of my pitches aren’t where I want them to be,” Eovaldi said. “Usually I’ve got two going, and I can rely on those two and wiggle the other ones in there, but lately they’ve all been not very good. I think once I get the fastball going — everything works off my fastball — so once I have that pitch working and I feel like I can rip it at the bottom of the zone, I feel like all my other shapes will come along quickly.”
Eovaldi has been beaten on pitches in the strike zone more than he historically has. Opponents slashed .250/.251/.424 against Eovaldi’s pitches within the strike zone in his first three seasons with the Rangers. They slashed .329/.325/.549 against them in his first five starts this season, and on Friday, the Athletics hit three of their four home runs off of pitches in the strike zone.
“Usually it’s just off the barrel inside the zone,” Schumaker said. “Right now it’s just kind of more on the barrel than he’s accustomed to. I say it, and I say it before, I’m not worried about him. It is true just because of how hard he works and how much he game plans. It’s going to turn for him, too, just like there’s some guys offensively that have had a slow start. He’s just had a little bit of a slow start.”