A’s 5, Rangers 4
A’s 5, Rangers 4
- Ah well.
- Was that Nathan Eovaldi’s final start for the Rangers? It is certainly possible. Likely, even. His spot in the rotation comes up again on Sunday, the final day of the season. It may be that the Rangers will want to give Jack Leiter that start, or Dane Dunning. If Eovaldi does go in the finale, there’s a good chance it is an abbreviated outing.
- And Eovaldi is a free agent at the end of the season. Yes, there’s a $20 million player option that has vested for 2025, though that seems almost certain to be declined. There appears to be mutual interest in Eovaldi returning next year, but every discussion about any worthwhile free agent comes with the “the Rangers may not be able to afford him” mantra that has accompanied every discussion about spending this offseason.
- If this is Eovaldi’s final appearance for the team, it would have been nice to give him a better send off. Eovaldi, as he has done so often this year, gave the Rangers a solid effort, giving up three earned runs in seven innings, along with one unearned run. He once again leaned on his splitter, getting 12 swings and misses on the 33 splitters he threw.
- It was the sort of outing that we’ve come to expect from Eovaldi during his two seasons with Texas. Here’s hoping we see him on the mound in a Ranger uniform next year.
- David Robertson did his thing, throwing a shutout inning, before Josh Sborz made his return to the major league mound, in which he allowed the walk off run. Sborz said after the game the important thing was getting back on the mound in the big leagues, showing he could at least pitch heading into 2025 after an injury-plagued 2024. In the final week of a losing season, process outweighs results.
- It would have been nice if the offense had scored more than four runs, as well. A Jonah Heim home run in the eighth tied things up, and gave us a brief moment of hope, soon enough dashed in the bottom of the ninth. Nathaniel Lowe homered as well. Lowe now has 14 homers on the season, Heim 13.
- Every Ranger starter got a hit in the game except for Wyatt Langford, who drew a walk, and Justin Foscue, whose bat appears to be cursed.
- Foscue is now 2 for 38 on the season with 2 walks. One of those two hits resulted in an oblique injury which put him on the 60 day injured list. For a guy who has hit at every level, its baffling.
- Just one more vexing thing about the 2024 season.
- Nathan Eovaldi topped out at 96.4 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.9 mph. David Robertson’s cutter hit 93.0 mph. Josh Sborz’s fastball maxed out at 96.2 mph.
- Nathaniel Lowe’s home run was 108.5 mph off the bat. Jonah Heim had an exit velocity of 105.0 mph on his home run. Justin Foscue had a 104.3 mph ground out. Josh Smith had a 100.8 mph single. Marcus Semien had a 100.4 mph single.
- Two more games in the Coliseum. Five more games in the season.