Nathan Eovaldi took the ball Tuesday night at Globe Life Field with the Texas Rangers trying to avoid a sweep after the New York Yankees won the first two games of the series, 4-2 and 3-2. The Rangers entered at 14-16 and had dropped three straight games, while the Yankees came in at 20-10 and had already shown they could win in Arlington.
For Eovaldi, the matchup was a familiar test. The Rangers right-hander was 2-4 and had a decision in all six of his starts, but three of his four losses came with five or more earned runs allowed. He had also been tagged in uneven fashion at home, where he made two six-inning starts: one ended with four home runs and six earned runs, the other with one home run and two earned runs. That kind of split mattered because the Yankees had 28 hits in 129 at-bats against him entering the game, and Aaron Judge accounted for half of those hits in 43 at-bats.
The broader gap between the clubs was already visible before the first pitch. New York was 12-5 on the road, while Texas was 6-8 at home and had lost four of its past five games. The Yankees had also been more productive as a team, with more homers and runs scored than the Rangers, which made their early two-game lead in the series feel less like a hot stretch and more like the shape of the matchup itself.
That left the Rangers with one clear task: change the terms of the series before it was gone. Eovaldi’s recent results suggested he could keep them in a game if he was sharp, but the numbers against New York offered little comfort. For the Yankees, the question was simpler and more immediate — whether a team that had already taken control in Arlington would finish the sweep and leave the Rangers looking at another missed chance at home.