Thoughts on a 6-0 Rangers win

Rangers 6, Nationals 0

• That was a good ‘un.
• There was also a big deep gulp of the Nathan Eovaldi Experience. Eovaldi was terrific, kept Washington off the board, then in the sixth inning had to leave the game because of a tightness in his groin.
• Keeping Nathan Eovaldi healthy has never been easy. He missed a chunk of time last year and still had the fourth highest regular season innings pitched total of his career, which says something. Bruce Bochy said after the game that Eovaldi would be examined tomorrow, though the beats seem to be treating it as a given that Eovaldi is headed for the i.l. If so, Jack Leiter presumably replaces him in the rotation.
• Jacob Latz continues to impress, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings in relief of Eovaldi, striking out a pair. Latz has now thrown 15.2 innings on the year and allowed five runs, four of which came on that Travis d’Arnaud grand slam.
• David Robertson and Jonathan Hernandez combined to finish things up, and don’t look now, but the bullpen is looking kind of respectable.
• The bats made a little bit of noise, getting runs home when given the opportunity, unlike Wednesday’s nonsense. Jonah Heim had a pair of hits and a walk. Ezequiel Duran, who has been slumping, doubled. Josh Smith continued to rake.
• The only players who appeared in the lineup and who didn’t have a hit for the Rangers were the slumping Corey Seager and the slumping Wyatt Langford. I have faith that they’ll get it going. I’d appreciate it if they wouldn’t test my faith by dragging it out, though.
• Two runs allowed in three games for the Rangers pitchers. While one can lament that this wasn’t a sweep, it was still a pretty good overall performance in the series, particularly by the pitching staff.
• Nathan Eovaldi maxed out at 96.3 mph on his fastball. Jacob Latz hit 94.9 mph with his fastball. David Robertson’s cutter reached 96.5 mph. Jonathan Hernandez touched 97.1 mph with his sinker.
• Marcus Semien had a 106.3 mph single. Evan Carter also had a 106.3 mph single. Adolis Garcia had a 101.3 mph single. Nathaniel Lowe also had a 101.3 mph exit velocity ball in play, but it was a double.
• Oh, and now the Rangers have a weekend series against the Royals of Kansas City, in Kansas City.