This is how you pick up your team after your ace goes down.

Nathan Eovaldi goes out and throws a nine-inning complete game shutout. Against the New York Yankees.

Of course, it was a Yankees team that had Willie Calhoun and Isiah Kiner-Falefa in its lineup. But the other seven starters were bona fide major league hitters, so the feat was not cheapened.

Eovaldi was credited with a shutout in his last start of 2022, but that game went only five innings due to rain. He and his Red Sox beat Tampa Bay 6-0.

Last night, Eovaldi was locked in. He struck out eight Yankees, didn’t walk any, and gave up just three harmless singles. The Yankees got a runner to second once. Other than that, it was total domination. 

It took Eovalidi 113 pitches to shut out the Yankees. But, really, it took a manager like Bruce Boche to let him stay in an do that. Lesser managers would have pulled him when he got to 90 pitches then rationalized it in the post-game interview.

The reality is, a complete game shutout takes the efforts of two people. The pitcher and the manager.

The Rangers finally have bona fide major leaguers in those two roles.

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