HOUSTON — In normal baseball times, when a manager would let his ace carry him as far as he could, Nathan Eovaldi would’ve thrown the Red Sox on his back and started churning his legs.
Nobody knows how far he might have taken them.
But these aren’t normal times. The modern game has changed. The starting pitcher’s impact has never been smaller.
Eovaldi did all he could, throwing more starts of at least five innings (three) than any other postseason pitcher in 2021, and he would’ve gone at least five again Friday night if Alex Cora would’ve let him.
Pitching on short rest, he was every bit as strong. He surrendered just one run on a dropped ball by Kiké Hernandez in center field in the first inning. He was still plowing along into the fifth, but facing the left-handed Michael Brantley a third time was too much for Cora to ask. The manager walked to the mound, shared a few words with his ace, took the ball and patted him on the rear.
That was the end of Eovaldi’s season, undoubtedly the best one of his career, and it soon marked the end of a storied run for the Red Sox, who went quietly in a 5-0 loss in Game 6 to the Houston Astros as they were eliminated from the American League Championship Series.
“He was good, really good,” Cora said. “Good fastball. Good split. Good breaking ball. In control. That guy, he is really good. They hit the ball in the air and we didn’t make a play in left center and they hit the triple down the line. But Nate was outstanding.”
Cora’s decision-making, which was about as good as it gets from a baseball manager for most of the season, stopped working after Game 3.
Cora tried desperately in Game 6, going to his bench early when he pinch-hit Danny Santana for Kevin Plawecki in the fifth. Santana has just three big league at-bats in the last 42 days. All three of them are strikeouts, including his at-bat against Luis Garcia on Friday night.
In an act of desperation, Cora replaced the struggling Christian Arroyo with Travis Shaw in the seventh, and the slumping Hunter Renfroe with Bobby Dalbec in the eighth. Neither move worked and left the Red Sox defensive unit in shambles.
Watching the Red Sox run out to take their defensive positions in the bottom of the eighth inning was about as sad as it gets. It was the sign of a team that had given everything it had.
The roster was far from perfect. The Astros matched up better. The Sox ran out of lefties to handle Brantley and Yordan Alvarez. The Astros’ starters rediscovered their magic and stymied the Sox’ over-aggressive offense in Games 5 and 6.
It all came crashing down in a matter of three days.
The one constant was Eovaldi. Where would this team have been without him?
On a staff that looked desperate for innings when the season started, the oft-injured Eovaldi led the American League with 32 starts. His 5.6 wins above replacement made him the most valuable pitcher in the league, according to Fan Graphs. He was an innings eater who showed up to big games with regularity.
“For me it’s being able to stay healthy,” he said “That’s a big thank you to our training staff. They’ve been unbelievable for us this year. Our coaching staff and taking care of me. Knowing when to take me out of games. I’m not the best in saying when I’m done, when I’m ready to come out of games. Everything that I was able to accomplish, it’s thanks to them.””
And when the postseason arrived, he brought it to another level.
Eovaldi owned the Yankees in the Wild Card Game, when he struck out eight batters and allowed just one run in 5 1/3 innings. In Game 3 of the ALDS against the Rays, he had an almost identical start, striking out eight and allowing two runs in five innings. And in Game 2 of the ALCS against the Astros, he went 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs.
The Sox won all three games. And leading into Friday, the Red Sox were 5-0 when Eovaldi starts in the postseason, dating back to 2018.
One has to wonder how the missed strike three call to Jason Castro in Game 4 affected him. His next pitch was the worst of his postseason, a splitter that hung there, and Castro roped it into the outfield as the Astros scored the eventual game-winning run.
While Dodgers ace Max Scherzer said he had a dead arm in Los Angeles after a relief appearance between starts, struggled in his next outing and now will not take the ball in Game 6 on Saturday, Eovaldi handled the same workload with ease.
His velocity was as good as it always is on Friday night. He held it throughout. His 4-1/3 innings weren’t as long as he would’ve liked to go, but said, “physically I felt good. The other night when I came in in the ninth inning, I was doing too much. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to be doing that today.”
He worked through a masterful Astros lineup until Brantley stepped up for a third time in the fifth. At that point, Cora’s choice was to let Eovaldi carry this team as far as he could or turn it over to left-hander Josh Taylor, the only lefty Cora has been able to rely on all postseason.
Cora chose Taylor, who handled Brantley but let a run score the next inning.
Ultimately, it was the ice-cold offense that ended the Red Sox season.
A lot will be said about the 2021 Red Sox in the coming weeks. There will be a lot to analyze and wonder what could’ve been different, what went wrong and who didn’t perform.
There won’t be much to say about Eovaldi.
The 31-year-old Texas native did everything he could for 32 regular-season starts, four postseason starts and one postseason relief appearance. He was a vintage workhorse in a modern game.
The Sox lost with their ace on the mound. Tip your cap.
