Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi makes brutally honest Astros admission

Texas Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi has been dealing so far this season, but Sunday’s outing against the Houston Astros was his worst yet. Their in-state rivals tagged Eovaldi for five earned runs on eight hits in six innings of work as the right-hander ultimately took his first loss of the campaign.

Following the game, Eovaldi spoke on how Houston made his life difficult despite making a lot of good pitches. Via MLB.com:

“One of the frustrating parts about today was I felt like I made good pitches at times and they were still able to put the ball in play,” Eovaldi said. “I feel like that’s one of the things that the Astros do well as a whole. They’re able to expand the strike zone but make it tough at-bats and tough outs.”

Jose Altuve in particular hit Eovaldi around, smacking two home runs out of Minute Maid Park in his first two at-bats. Eovaldi has had success against the veteran at times but as he said, even when he makes good pitches, guys like Altuve can still do damage:

“I think it’s a little back and forth. I feel like I’ll have a stretch, like, where I’m doing well getting him out and then other times where he doesn’t really drop off,” Nathan Eovaldi said. “I think the biggest challenge is the fact that he can expand out of the zone so far and then still do damage. I feel like there’s times where I make good pitches, like the first one today that I felt like I located that ball up and in and he was able to get to it.”

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