ARLINGTON, Texas — The last thing a scuffling team needs to see is Nathan Eovaldi standing on the mound.
But that was the case for the Yankees Tuesday night and it went about as expected.
Eovaldi dominated the Yankees, allowing just one base runner across eight shutout innings on a night when they mustered just two hits total in a 2-0 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
“He uses all his pitches, works all parts of the zone, does a good job throwing strikes with all pitches,” said Aaron Judge, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his return from the injured list. “So you really got to be disciplined when you’re facing a guy like that. He made some tough pitches that kept us off the bases for quite a bit. Just couldn’t get anything going against him.”
Anthony Volpe was responsible for the only hit off Eovaldi, recording a hustle double with two outs in the third inning.
Ryan McMahon led off the ninth with a single against Phil Maton, but was quickly erased when pinch hitter Giancarlo Stanton grounded into a double play before Trent Grisham struck out to end it.
Eovaldi, who struck out six, was coming off a July in which he gave up two earned runs in 30 ²/₃ innings. He became the third opposing starter in the past four games to shut down the Yankees — the other two being Marlins’ Eury Pérez and Edward Cabrera, who combined for 12 innings of one-run, four-hit ball over the weekend.
“We’ve faced [Eovaldi] a lot over the years,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve had some success, but he’s had a lot of nights where he’s really pitched well against us. This was right up there. We were getting it in play some, but really not a lot of hard contact at all.”
The only solace for the Yankees was that Judge reported feeling “great” physically in his first game since July 25, the day before he was diagnosed with a right elbow flexor strain.
“Results weren’t there, but I got to step it up and we’ll get those right,” said Judge, who will be limited to DH duties until he gets through a throwing program that he is set to start on Wednesday.
The quiet offensive performance by the Yankees helped further loosen their grip on a playoff spot. They lead the race for the final AL wild-card by a half-game.
“We got some work to do,” Judge said. “A lot of things to clean up. But the boys in here are fired up to change all that and get things right. We got a great ballclub in here. It’s a lot of mistakes all around, some mental mistakes and physical mistakes, but we got to fix them and we got to fix them now.”
“We got to look ourselves in the mirror. It starts with each individual on their own, to say, ‘Hey, I got to step up, I got to be better.’ Enough’s enough.”
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