Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi’s homerless streak snapped

Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi gave up his first homer of the season

It had to end eventually, right? Nathan Eovaldi had kept the ball in the park all season until Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins snapped the streak with a solo home run with one out in the sixth inning to trim an eventual Boston Red Sox victory.

According to Masslive’s Chris Cotillo, Eovaldi explained that he intended to throw his cutter down and away but the pitch backed up to stay middle-in. Hoskins made him pay for the mistake with a 371-foot blast to left field, the 100th home run of the first baseman’s career.

“It’s not going to last forever, so go out there and keep competing,” said Eovaldi.

Eovaldi had pitched 55 innings this season prior to that home run, tying Pedro Martinez for the second-longest homerless streak by a Red Sox pitcher to open a season in the last 25 years. Only Derek Lowe has had a longer streak during that span when he opened the 2002 season with 88 1/3 innings before giving up his first home run.

Dating back to last season, Eovaldi had made 11 starts, faced 283 batters and logged 68 innings since allowing his last home run to Austin Meadows at Tropicana Field on Sept. 12, 2020.

Eovaldi was the last of the qualified major league pitchers to surrender a home run this season and his minuscule 0.2 HR/9 still leads the majors.

While his 4.39 ERA gives the impression that he’s having an underwhelming season, Eovaldi has pitched much better than that figure suggests. He’s striking out batters at modest clip with an 8.3 K/9, limiting free passes with a solid 2.1 BB/9 and obviously he hasn’t allowed many home runs. Take that into consideration and it’s clear why Eovaldi is fourth among qualified major league starters and second in the American League with a 2.46 FIP.

Part of why Eovaldi has succeeded in keeping the ball in the park is that he induces soft contact by mixing up his five-pitch arsenal to keep hitters off balance. His 32.9% Hard Hit rate is the eight-lowest among qualified starters and his 87.5 mph exit velocity is tied for 14th-lowest. It’s impressive that a pitcher who throws as hard as Eovaldi does has managed to limit hard contact this well.

Despite giving up his first home run of the season, Eovaldi managed to notch his fifth win. He allowed two earned runs on five hits, a pair of walks and struck out four over 5 1/3 innings. Eovaldi helped his own cause by drawing a third-inning walk and coming around to score on a Rafael Devers double. That run proved pivotal in Boston’s 4-3 nail-biting victory.

The altered baseball has severely limited offense across the league this year but it hasn’t stopped hitters from swinging for the fences. Eovaldi has always done an excellent job of avoiding home runs and deserves recognition for how well he’s limited the long ball compared to his peers.