Starts 15th season with early success

The Texas Rangers walked into Cincinnati on Tuesday to beat the Reds 1-0, thanks in part to a complete-game shutout from two-time All-Star Nathan Eovaldi.

Eovaldi followed a solid Opening Day start, in which he pitched six innings, allowing two runs on three hits while racking up nine strikeouts in a loss, with a dominant win. He allowed just four hits on 99 pitches with eight strikeouts.

Eovaldi completed what is known as a “Maddux,” a feat where a pitcher throws a complete-game shutout with fewer than 100 pitches. This accomplishment is named after Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who pulled it off 13 times during his career.

With the Rangers struggling to get the bats going this season, with a team BA of .207 and OBP of .272, they’re relying heavily on their pitching staff to keep them in these tightly contested games, and Eovaldi has stepped up to the challenge.

He currently boasts an impressive 1.20 ERA and 0.47 WHIP. He is holding opponents to a .137 batting average, but what stands out the most is his 17 strikeouts in 15 innings while not issuing a single walk.

Eovaldi is putting up these Cy Young-esque numbers in his 15th season after undergoing two Tommy John surgeries earlier in his career.

While it’s not unheard of for a pitcher to undergo Tommy John surgery and still achieve success, with pitchers like Jacob deGrom, Justin Verlander, and Stephen Strasburg all recovering to win Cy Youngs and World Series MVPs, what’s truly remarkable is Eovaldi’s ability to bounce back from multiple Tommy John surgeries and continue to dominate the way he has.

He’s only two starts into the season, but if he can maintain even a fraction of this performance, Eovaldi could very well be in line for some postseason hardware at the end of the year.