Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi Gets Groove Back After Two Awful Starts

Nathan Eovaldi stopped bleeding runs and got back to being the starting pitchers the Texas Rangers needed on Tuesday.

It started with a bang. He gave up a leadoff home run to Seattle’s Brendan Donovan on his first pitch of the game. From there, he gave up five more hits, one more run, struck out seven and walked two in six innings, as he put together his first quality start of the season in a 3-2 Texas victory.

It came on a night in which he recorded his 1,500th career strikeout and pitched in his 300th career start. It was a much-needed night of effectiveness.

Eovaldi (1-2) had given up 16 hits and 11 earned runs in his previous two starts, both of which ended in losses.

Nathan Eovaldi Gets Back to Basics

"I don't really think about [the milestones] too much, I just keep trying to go out there and do my job." - Eovaldi on recording his 1,500 strikeout in his 300th career start pic.twitter.com/PS9o6IP2uf
— Rangers Sports Network (@RangersSNtv) April 8, 2026

The right-hander threw 93 pitches and reached a top velocity of 93.3 mph. Of the six hits he allowed five were singles and only six pitches were hard hit, per Statcast.

He threw six different pitches on Tuesday, with his splitter taking center stage, as he threw it 38 times and recorded five of his seven strikeouts with the pitch. Of the 22 whiffs he induced, eight were on the splitter, which also led to six called strikes.

But his cutter was just as potent. He threw it 22 times, and his other two strikeouts came on the pitch. He also recorded eight whiffs with the pitch. He mixed in the curveball and the four-seam fastball a combined 28 times.

The mix is part of how he kept hitters off-balance all game. After allowing the home run he retired the next eight hitters before Donovan got him again, this time with a single in the third inning. He then retired Cal Raleigh on a flyout to end that frame.

In the fourth, he gave up a single to Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez, which was challenged by the Rangers but was upheld. But he escaped that jam, too. He allowed one more single to Cole Young in the fifth inning and gave up a walk to Donovan. That set up Seattle’s other run, an RBI single by Raleigh. At the time, Texas was down 2-0.

The Rangers put together a three-run fifth to put Eovaldi in position for the win. He pitched his final inning in the sixth, as he gave up a two-out single to Raley and a walk to J.P. Crawford before he ended the inning and his game by forcing a Dominic Canzone groundout.