With thirty-six games left, the Rangers move on to Kansas City to play four games against a Royals team that leapfrogged them in the wild card race. Then they play three against the Guardians, who have also passed them in the wild card race.
Beating Toronto yesterday helped Texas avoid being swept. Fortunately, they had Nathan Eovaldi and his unfathomable 1.76 ERA on the mound. The bullpen tried to give away the lead, but the Rangers hung on.
But the story is Nathan Eovaldi and the amazing year he is having, with a 1.76 ERA after twenty-one starts.
Eovaldi still doesn’t have enough innings pitched to qualify for the ERA lead, though, and that usually goes with Cy Young consideration. Having an ERA less than 2.00 is usually a lock.
To quality, a pitcher needs to have one inning pitched for every game his team has played. The Rangers have played one-hundred twenty-five games. With Eovaldi’s seven innings yesterday, he now has one-hundred twenty-three innings pitched. He’s just two innings shy of qualifying. Assuming he pitches five games from now, that will be the Rangers’ one-hundred thirtieth game, meaning if he pitches seven innings, he would qualify. If stands to reason that if it’s not his next start, it’s the start after.
When he finally does qualifie, Eovaldi will be far ahead of the second-place pitcher in the American League ERA race. That would be last year’s Cy Young Award winner, Detroit’s Terik Skubal, who currently sports a 2.42 ERA. Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers has an even-more-ridiculous 1.42 ERA, but he missed the first two months of the season and at sixty-nine innings, won’t pitch enough innings this year to qualify.
In the past fifty seasons, only seven American League pitchers have had an ERA under 2.00. Two of those happened in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Five of the seven won the CY Young award, something no Ranger has ever won .
So, as this frustrating season slowly fades, Rangers fans have a historic ending to look forward to. No Rangers pitcher has ever won the Cy Young Award. Nathan Eovaldi’s amazing season is something to be excited about.
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